









Y/t,,'M„ ',M I ' J I 









THE LIFE 



OF 



WILLIAM PENN. 



THE LIFE 



OF 



COMPILED FROM 
THE USUAL AUTHORITIES 

AND ALSO 

MANY ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPTS. 



By Mrs HUGHS, 
Author of Ornaments Discovered^ The Cousins^ S^c. 



When we look back upon the great men who have gone before 
us in every path of glory, we feel our eye turn from the career of 
war and ambition and involuntarily rest upon those who have 
displayed the great truths of religion, who have investigated the 
laws of social welfare, or extended the sphere of human know- 
ledge. Alison. 



PitlaTrrl})Hta: 



© PRINTED BY JAMES KAY, J UN. FOR 

Carey, Lea & Carey, Towar & Hogan, John Grigg, 
Uriah Hunt, Robert H. Small, M'Carty & Davis, 
Kimber &- Sharpless, J. Crissy. 

Boston : Munroe &. Francis. 

1828. 



JAMES K.AY, JUN. PRINTER. 



Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit: 

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the seventh day of April, in the 
fiftysecond year of the independence of the United States of America, 
A.D. 1828, James Kay, Jun. of the said district has deposited in this 
office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as proprietor, 
in the words following, to wit : 

" The Life of William Penn, compiled from the usual authorities, ^ 
and also many original manuscripts. By Mrs Hughs, Author of ' 
Ornaments Discovered, The Cousins, 8fc. 

" When we look hack upon the great men who have gone before us ] 
in every path of glory, we feel our eyeiturn from the career ofivar 
and ambition and involuntarily rest unon those who have displayed 
the great truths of religion, who hw)i investigated the laws of social 
welfare, or extended the sphere of human knowledge. — Alison." 

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, en- 
titled, " An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the i 
copies of maps, charts, and books to the authors and proprietors of such | 
copies during the times therein mentioned ;" and also to the act, enti- ] 
tied, " An act supplementary to an act, entitled, ' An act for the en- \ 
couragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and 1 
books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times I 
therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of j 
designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." j 

D. CALDWELL, ) 

Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 'j 



^^: 



TO 

Jitter StejJhen Bu Jlonceau, 7Bm* 

THIS 

LITTLE VOLUME 
[S RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 

BY THE AUTHOR, 



PREFACE 



X^ STRONG sense of the excellence of William 
Penn's character, and of the many useful lessons that might 
be derived from it, induced me several years ago to make 
an abstract of Clarkson's hfe of him, with the hope that 
many might be led, by seeing it in a more compendious 
form, to become acquainted with it, that would shrink 
from the idea of wading through a more voluminous 
work. Since my removal to this country, however, the 
kind encouragement of some, who had it in their power to 
assist me in procuring many additional materials, induced 
me to recommence the subject and endeavour to form an 
original sketch of my own. 

The manner in which this undertaking has been exe- 
cuted proves but too plainly that the estimate formed of 
my powers for performing the task was far beyond what 
they deserved ; yet I am willing to flatter myself that its 
merits are sufficient to gain for this little work the 
kind attention of those who have always received with so 
much indulgence whatever I have presented to them. 
It has been my endeavour to enable my readers to judge 



for themselves of the character for which I claimed their 
admiration, by giving, wherever it was in my power, 
either William Penn's own words, or the words of 
those who were immediately and actively connected with 
him. In consequence of this, many names will appear in 
this volume, that will be recognized with pride by many 
readers as the stock from which they themselves derived 
their being ; and I have only to regret that my limits 
would not permit me to give more of those names which 
are so honourably mentioned, and thus to gratify that 
only justifiable pride of ancestry, the pride of having 
descended from virtue, sense and learning. 

The assistance that I have received from many gentle- 
men in the city, especially from P. S. Du Ponceau, Esq. 
John Vaughan, Esq. and T. I. Wharton, Esq. demands 
my warmest acknowledgments, whilst to Mrs Deborah 
Logan, who so kindly granted me permission to make 
use of her valuable mass of manuscript, I feel unable to 
express my gratitude in proportionable terms. Had the 
object for which she so kindly lent her aid, been executed 
in a manner more worthy of the subject, I should have 
felt satisfied that she would find her reward in the pro- 
motion of a cause that she has so much at heart ; but as 
it is, I can only hope that she will accept the will for the 
deed, and be assured that its deficiencies have arisen from 
anything rather than from an indifierence to the noble 
subject that I had undertaken. 



THE LIFE 



OF 



WILLIAM PENN 



w 



ILLIAM PENN, son of Admiral Sir Wil- 
liam Penn, was born in London October the 14th 
1644. Fortune at the moment of his birth seemed 
to mark him as one of her most favoured children, 
and surrounded him with her richest offerings, pre- 
sented under the smiles of princes and the pro- 
tection of power. But wonderful are the ways 
of Providence and often most unlooked for are 
the means by which its designs are accomplished. 
And so it proved in this instance, when he, who 
was surrounded by all the allurements of the 
world, simply for conscience sake rejected all her 
flattering gifts, and submitted to the miseries of 

2 



/ 



10 

scorn, contempt, and persecution, viewing all 
those adventitious circumstances in their true light 
and aiming at that real greatness which it is not 
in the power of princes to bestow, little imagin- 
ing that he even then was preparing the way for 
becoming the founder of a mighty state and the 
father of a powerful people. 

Admiral Sir William Penn was a distinguished 
officer under the parliament, and was entrusted 
with the command of the fleet sent by Cromwell 
against Hispaniola ; and was afterwards sent to 
the Tower by him on the failure of that expedi- 
tion, though the blame rested chiefly on Venables 
who had the command of the soldiers. The ad- 
miral afterwards held high offices under Charles 
the second ; and as he was received as the per- 
sonal friend of that monarch's brother the duke of 
York, his power in promoting the interests of his 
son might be considered as almost unbounded; 
and naturally anxious that the full benefit of these 
advantages might be enjoyed, his first care was to 
give him a liberal education. 

For this purpose he sent him first to a grammar 
school at Chigwell in Essex, which was not only an 
excellent seminary but had also the advantage of 
being near Wanstead, at that time his own country 
residence. It is said that when at this school, and 
when only eleven years old, he received strong 



11 

religious impressions, and became convinced of the 
capability of man to enjoy a direct communication 
with God. How far this was real or imaginary, it 
would be presumption in us to determine ; but it 
may fairly be said that the conviction was of essen- 
tial importance to his future character, by strength- 
ening his belief in the support and protection of 
the Deity, and enabling him to persevere in those 
paths which his judgment and conscience dictated. 

From Chigwell his father removed him to a 
school on Tower hill, near his own residence, and 
gave him, at the same time, the additional advan- 
tage of a private tutor, a circumstance which be- 
speaks no common care in the admiral to fit him 
for what he conceived to be his high destination : 
for the subject of education was not then gener- 
ally conceived to be of the importance that it now 
is ; and private tutors consequently must have 
been much less common. At the age of fifteen 
he had made such use of the opportunities he had 
enjoyed, that he was sent to college, and was en- 
tered a gentleman commoner at Christ's Church, 
Oxford. He here spent his time so properly be- 
tween study and exercise, as not to exceed a due 
proportion of either. He indulged himself in all 
those manly sports which are calculated to make 
the body strong and athletic, as well as those 
amusements which are not less necessary to give 
vigour to the mind — the society of amiable and 



12 

intelligent friends. Amongst these he was so 
happy as to number Robert Spencer, afterwards 
the well known earl of Sunderland, and the still 
more distinguished and respectable John Locke. 

These pleasures, however, had no effect in 
drawing off his mind from religious subjects, which, 
on the contrary, seemed daily to take firmer root 
in his bosom, and were in a short time considera- 
bly strengthened by the preaching of Thomas Loe, 
who had formerly been a layman in the university 
of Oxford, but had then become a Quaker. As 
the doctrines which he imbibed from this person's 
preaching were at variance with the mode of wor- 
ship which he had hitherto pursued, his mind was 
too upright and iugenuous to admit of his persever- 
ing in that which he had hitherto pursued, and, 
therefore, in conjunction with some of his fellow 
students, he withdrew from the established form 
of worship, and held meetings where they could 
offer up their devotions in a manner more con- 
genial to their feelings. It may easily be ima- 
gined that this was highly offensive to the heads 
of the college; and, in consequence, a fine was 
levied upon them for nonconformity. Neither he 
nor his associates, however, were deterred by this 
exaction from following what they thought right; 
nay, it may even be presumed that it only strength- 
ened them in their resolutions by adding a degree 
of irritation and resentment to their other motives. 



13 

This may fairly be conjectured from what soon after 
took place, as it certamly led to most unjustifia- 
ble outrages against the ruling authority. An 
order came down to Oxford from Charles the se- 
cond, that the surplice should be worn, according 
to the custom of ancient times, which operated so 
disagreeably upon William Penn's ideas of the 
simplicity and spirituality of the Christian religion, 
that, engaging Robert Spencer and some others of 
his associates to join him, he fell upon those stu- 
dents who appeared in their surplices, and tore 
them violently off their backs. It was impossible 
that an outrage of so unwarrantable and shameful 
a nature could be overlooked. The college took 
it up, and William Penn and several of his com- 
panions were expelled. This act of a rash and im- 
petuous mind, and which could only be excused on 
the plea of his youth and inexperience, gave great 
displeasure to his father, who received him very 
coldly on his return home. Nor was the admiral's 
displeasure a little increased by observing the turn 
which his son's mind had taken, and the desire 
which he shewed to avoid all gay and fashionable 
society and to associate only with those of a serious 
and religious disposition. 

Foreseeing a destruction to all the schemes of 
ambition which he had formed for his son, and 
which his situation and connections in life gave 
him so fair a prospect of realizing, the admiral be- 



14 

came exceedingly impatient; and, after endeavour- 
ing in vain to overcome him by argument, he 
adopted a mode of disciphne more consistent with 
his habits as a commanding officer, than with his 
character either as an affectionate father or a rea- 
sonable being — and had recourse to blows. These, 
however, failing, as it was natural they should, for 
bodily inflictions can have little influence on the 
mind except in hardening it against the opposing 
party, he at length turned him out of doors. 

But though of rather a hasty temper, the admiral 
was possessed of an excellent disposition, and 
could not, therefore, fail to be soon convinced of 
the error of his proceedings — particularly as his 
wife, who was a most amiable woman, used every 
means in her power to soften his anger towards his 
son. Overcome by such powerful advocates as 
his own affection and his wife's intercessions, the 
offender w^as at length pardoned, and a plan adopt- 
ed to wean him from his old connections, which, 
with a mind less firm and steady than the one which 
was to be conquered, would most certainly have 
produced the desired effect. Deeming it proba- 
ble that a change of scene, and in particular the 
gaiety of French manners, might have a powerful 
effect in counteracting the increasing gravity of 
his mind, he was sent to France with some persons 
of rank who were then gomg on their travels. 



15 

His first place of residence was Paris, but from 
his short stay there it may be concluded that the 
gaiety and dissipation of that place did not suit his 
turn of mind. He afterwards resided some months, 
during the years 1662 and 1663, with his compa- 
nions, at Saumur. It appears he had been induced 
to go thither for the sake of-enjoying the conversa- 
tion and instruction of the learned Moses Amy- 
rault, who was a protestant minister of the Calvi- 
nistic persuasion, professor of divinity at Saumur, 
and at this time in the highest estimation of any 
divine in France. From Saumur he directed his 
course towards Italy, and had arrived at Turin, 
when he received a letter from his father desiring 
his return, as he was himself ordered to take com- 
mand of the fleet against the Dutch, and wished 
his son to take care of the family during his ab- 
sence. Though his religious principles vvere as 
firm as ever, he returned home with manners much 
more accordant with his father's wishes than those 
with which he had departed. He had become more 
lively, and had acquired a polish and courtly de- 
meanour which was the natural consequence of 
having mingled more with the world. 

As it was deemed desirable on his return from 
the continent that he should make himself ac- 
quainted with the laws of his country, he entered 
himself, at his father's request, a student at Lin- 
coln's Inn. The breaking out of the plague, how- 



16 

ever, obliged him to relinquish his new pursuit 
in about a year, as it was necessary, for self pre- 
servation, that he should leave London. It is pro- 
bable, however, that short as this time was, the 
knowledge which he then obtained was highly 
serviceable to him in future life, and that he then 
acquired the rudiments of those principles of law 
and equity which were afterwards so conspicu- 
ously displayed. There can be little doubt that, 
as his situation in life was too independent to make 
it necessary that he should follow a profession, 
his father's motive for directing his attention to 
the study of the law was a wish to occupy his mind 
and preserve him from returning to his former ha- 
bits and associates. But his mind appears to have 
been too firmly bent upon the cause he had es- 
poused, to be diverted from his object. On the 
contrary, it broke forth with renewed force from 
its temporary suppression. He again became se- 
rious, and mixed only with grave and religious 
people. 

His father, on his return, immediately observed 
the change ; and, still feeling the same determina- 
tion to break up his son's connections, he sent him 
off to Ireland. He was induced to make choice of 
this country on account of his acquaintance with 
the duke of Ormond, (who was the lord lieute- 
nant,) as well as with many others of his court. 
The duke was a man of graceful manners, lively 



17 

wit, and cheerful temper ; and his court was gay 
and splendid ; so that the admiral imagined his son 
could scarcely fail, in such society, to forget his 
early habits, and gradually acquire new tastes and 
pursuits. But this scheme proved as futile as the 
former ones ; his religious sentiments remained un- 
shaken, and every thing he saw tended to confirm 
his determination to a serious life. And here it is 
impossible not to pause and admire the firmness of 
that mind which could thus resist such powerful 
and manifold temptations, and steadily persevere 
in keeping itself unspotted from the world. 

The admiral, again disappointed though not 
overcome, had recourse to another expedient. He 
had large estates in Ireland, of which he deter- 
mined to give his son the sole management, know- 
ing that it would at once keep his time fully em- 
ployed, and detain him at a distance from all his En- 
glish connections. And here he found that, though 
unshaken in his resolution where his conscience 
told him that it was his duty to oppose, this 
opposition did not arise from any unwillingness to 
comply with his wishes ; but that on the contrary 
he performed the duties of his commission with 
scrupulous diligence. But an accident occurred 
at this time which produced very important con- 
sequences. 

Being accidentally on business at Cork, he heard 



IS 

that Thomas Loe (the layman who has before been 
mentioned as having made a great impression on 
his mind) was to preach at a meeting of the Qua- 
kers in that city, and he found it impossible to resist 
the temptation of going to hear him. The dis- 
course happened to be from the following words : 
" There is a faith which overcomes the world, and 
there is a faith which is overcome by the world." 
The subject seemed so peculiarly fitted to the 
struggles which he had so long undergone, that it 
made a strong impression on his mind ; and, though 
he had not before shewn a preference to any parti- 
cular sect, he from that day favoured the Quakers. 

In consequence of this preference, he began to 
attend thpir public, lucetings. But he soon found, 
from the prejudices of the times, that he had cho- 
sen a thorny and rugged road. On the 3d of 
September 1667, being at one of these meetings, 
he was apprehended on the plea of a proclamation 
issued in 1660 against tumultuous assemblies, and 
carried before the mayor. As his dress did not 
correspond with that of the society, he was offered 
his liberty on condition of giving bond for his 
good behaviour ; but not choosing to do this he 
was sent, with eighteen others, to prison. Soon 
after his commitment, he wrote a letter to lord 
Orrery, then president of the council of Munster, 
from which it will not, it is presumed, be unaccep- 
table to make an extract, as nothing can give so 



19 

true a picture of his mind as his own forcible lan« 
guage ; and when it is considered that he was at 
the time of his writing it only in his twenty-third 
year, it is impossible to read it without being struck 
with the justness of the reasoning and the modera- 
tion of the language in so young a man, and one 
too who had so much cause for complaint. After 
arguing against his imprisonment as a point of law, 
he proceeds thus : " And tho' to dissent from a na- 
tional system, imposed by authority, renders men 
hereticks, yet I dare believe your lordship 's belter 
read in reason and theology than to subscribe 
a maxim so vulgar and untrue, for imagining 
most visible constitutions of religious government 
suited to the nature and genius of a civil empire, 
it cannot be esteemed heresy, but to scare a mul- 
titude from such enquiries as may create divisions 
fatal to a civil policy, and therefore at worst de- 
serves the name only of disturbers. 

"But I presume, my lord, the acquaintance you 
have had with other countries must needs have fur- 
nish'd you with this infallible observation, that 
diversities of faith and worship contribute not to 
the disturbance of any place where moral unifor- 
mity is barely requisite to preserve the peace. It 
is not long since you were a good solicitor for the 
liberty I now crave, and conclude no way so effec- 
tual to improve or advantage this country as to dis- 
pense with freedom in things relating to conscience ; 



20 

and I suppose were it riotous or tumultuary, as by 
some vainly imagined, your lordship's inclination, 
as well as duty, would entertain a very remote 
opinion. My humble supplication therefore to you 
is, that so malicious and injurious a practice to 
innocent Englishmen may not receive any counte- 
nance or encouragement from your lordship; for as 
it is contrary to the practice elsewhere and is a 
bad argument to invite English hither, so with sub- 
mission will it not resemble that clemency and 
English spirit that hath hitherto made you ho- 
nourable." This letter, as far as he was himself 
concerned, answered the desired end ; for the earl 
immediately ordered his release. 

The report that he had become a Quaker was 
soon conveyed to his father by a nobleman then 
resident in Ireland, and the admiral immediately 
sent for him home. Though there was not, at 
first sight, any thing in his appearance which 
seemed to confirm the report, it was not long be- 
fore it was placed beyond a doubt by his renunci- 
ation of the customs of the world, and particularly 
that of taking oflT the hat, as well as his commu- 
nion with those only of his own peculiar views. 
The admiral had now tried his last expedient, and 
could no longer contain himself Coming to a di- 
rect explanation with his son, the scene is de- 
scribed by Joseph Besse (the first biographer of 
William Penn) as having been exceedingly in- 



2i 

teresting. •' And here," says he, " my pen is 
diffident of her abilities to describe that most pa- 
thetic and moving contest which was between his 
father and him : his father, actuated by natural love, 
principally aiming at his son's temporal honour ; 
he, guided by a divine impulse, having chiefly in 
view his own eternal welfare : his father, grieved 
to see the well accomplished son of his hopes, now 
ripe for worldly promotion, voluntarily turning his 
back upon it; he, no less afflicted to think a com- 
pliance with his earthly father's pleasure was in- 
consistent with his obedience to his heavenly one : 
his father, pressing his conformity to the customs 
and fashions of the times ; he, modestly craving 
leave to refrain from what would hurt his con- 
science : his father, earnestly entreating him, and 
almost on his knees beseeching him to yield to his 
desire ; he, of a loving and tender disposition, in 
an extreme agony of spirit to behold his father's 
concern and trouble : his father, threatening to 
disinherit him; he, humbly submitting to his fa- 
ther's will therein : his father, turning his back on 
him in anger ; he, lifting up his heart to God for 
strength to support him in that time of trial." 

Convinced that it was in vain to attempt any 
farther to alter the general views of his son, the 
admiral agreed to give up the point, provided he 
could obtain one slight concession ; which was, 
that he would consent to sit with his hat otf ;in his 
3 



22 

own presence, and in that of the king and the 
duke of York. William desired time to consider 
this proposition ; and perhaps it is to be regretted 
that he could not bring his mind to comply with 
it. His reasons, however, no doubt appeared 
sufficiently cogent to authorize his refusal ; for 
we find that, after being permitted to retire to his 
own chamber to consider the matter seriously, he 
declared his inability to comply. His answer, 
though couched in terms of the tenderest affec- 
tion and filial submission, was more than his father 
could bear ; and, giving way to the violence of his 
anger, he once more turned his son out of doors. 

However we may regret William's refusal to 
yield to this apparently trifling mark of submission 
to his father's wishes, it is impossible not to reve- 
rence the conscientious principles which dictated 
it. The deprivations to which it exposed him puts 
all doubt of the sincerity of his motives out of the 
question ; and we cannot, therefore, but sympa- 
thize with him when we find him thrown upon the 
world, without even the means of support. He 
had no private fortune, nor had he been brought 
up to any trade or profession. But though his 
sudden change from affluence to poverty could not 
but have affected him very deeply, his chief con- 
cern arose from the idea of having broken the 
peace of so worthy a parent. He bore his situa- 
tion, however, with great resignation, supporting 



23 

himself with the comforts which religion afforded 5 
and it was not long before he found that, even in 
this forlorn state, he was not entirely deserted. 
His mother kept up a private communication with 
him, supplying him with money from her own 
purse, and several other kind friends also came 
with assistance. 

In 1668, being then twenty-four years of age, 
he came forward in the important character of a 
minister of the gospel, having before joined in 
membership with the society of Quakers. Soon 
after this time, he became involved in a contro- 
versy with the minister of a Presbyterian congrega- 
tion in Spitalfields, the particulars of which we 
will not attempt to detail ; suffice it to say, that as 
his opponent refused to give him an opportunity 
of a personal discussion of his sentiments, he de- 
termined upon doing it by means of the press. 
He therefore published "The Sandy Foundation 
Shaken," in which he treated many of what were 
considered important points of religion, particu- 
larly the doctrine of the trinity, in a manner 
which gave great offence to many. Amongst 
those who took umbrage at it, the bishop of Lon- 
don was the most conspicuous. By this means 
it became an affair of public animadversion, and 
William Penn was soon afterwards apprehended, 
and sent a prisoner to the Tower. 



24 

tn his confinement he was treated with great 
severity. He was not only kept a close prisoner, 
but forbidden the sight of any of his friends; in 
addition to which he was told, that the bishop of 
London was resolved he should either publicly 
recant or die in prison. But he who for conscience 
sake had suffered himself to be driven from the roof 
of a parent whom he loved and revered was not to 
be subdued by such a threat. In his reply to the 
bishop, instead of making any mean concessions, 
he gave him to understand, " that he would weary 
out the malice of his enemies by his patience ; that 
great and good things were seldom obtained with- 
out loss and hardships ; that the man who would 
reap and not labour must faint with the wind and 
perish in disappointments; and that his prison 
should be his grave before he would renounce his 
just opinions ; for that he owed his conscience to 



Whilst confined in the Tower he amused him- 
self, as well satisfied his conscience, by writing; 
and produced at this time his " No Cross, no Crown" 
— as well as another work, called "Innocency with 
her Open Face," intended as an explanation of 
"The Sandy Foundation Shaken," which he un- 
derstood had been much misrepresented. Soon 
after the publication of "Innocency with her Open 
Face," he was discharged from the Tower, after 
having been a prisoner there for seven months. 



25 

His discharge came suddenly from the king, who 
had been prevailed upon by the duke of York to 
grant it. It is not known whether his liberation 
was occasioned by a request from his father or 
was granted merely in compliment to him; but 
there is every reason to believe that he owed it 
simply to his family connections and not to any 
conviction of his innocence on the part of his per- 
secutors. 

We are happy to observe, that about this time 
his father began to shew signs of relenting. His 
son's steady perseverance in the path he had cho- 
sen, notwithstanding the many hardships he had 
undergone, no doubt convinced the admiral of his 
being actuated by strictly conscaentious principles; 
and, under such a conviction, it was scarcely pos- 
sible that his resentment should continue. We 
do not find, however, that he yielded at this time 
further than by permitting him to come to his 
house ; for he still refused to see him, but gave him 
a commission to execute some business for him in 
Ireland. This commission was cheerfully receiv- 
ed ; for William, no doubt, felt happy in being 
able thus to testify his readiness to obey the wishes 
of his father as far as it was in his power to do so 
without injuring his conscience. 

Whilst in Ireland his time was divided between 
the execution of his father's business and what he 

3* 



26 

deemed a due attention to his religious concerns, 
particularly in visiting those of his poor brethren 
who were in prison for conscience sake. To these, 
however, visits of sympathy were not the only kind- 
ness which he shewed. He drew up an account 
of their cases in the form of an address, and pre- 
sented it with his own hand to the lord lieute- 
nant, and exerted so much zeal himself, as well 
as interesting his father and many other people of 
power in their favour, that he at length obtained 
an order in council for their release. On his re- 
turn from Ireland, a complete reconciliation took 
place between him and his father, to the joy of all 
concerned, but particularly of his mother, and he 
once more fixed his residence under the paternal 
roof. 

In the year 1670 the Conventicle act was pas- 
sed by parliament, which prohibited Dissenters 
from worshipping God according to their own 
ideas of duty. It is believed to have originated 
with some of the bishops, and must ever be a last- 
ing stain upon the memory of those by whom it 
was suggested. But it is not to be supposed that 
the laws of man, however arbitrary, would have 
power to deter William Penn from pursuing the 
path which he believed to be right. Accordingly, 
he and several others proceeded as usual to the 
meeting house in Gracechurch street, which they 
found guarded by a band of soldiers. Not being 



27 

allowed to enter, they remained about the door, 
where they were joined by others till they became 
a very considerable assembly. William Penn 
now began to preach, but had not gone far before 
he and another of the society, named Willia;ii 
Mead, were seized by constables, who produced 
warrants signed by Sir Samuel Starling, then 
lord mayor. They were immediately conveyed 
to Newgate, there to await their trial at the next 
session of the Old Bailey. 

On the first of September the trial came on ; 
and though it is in our power to give only a cur- 
sory view of the proceedings, it is hoped that the 
slight sketch which will be found here will not fail 
of interesting our readers. 

The jury, who were impanelled, and who deserve 
to have their names handed down to the respect 
and gratitude of future generations, were, Thomas 
Veer, Edward Bushel, John Hammond, Charles 
Milson, Gregory Walklet, John Brightman, Wil- 
liam Plumstead, Henry Henley, James Damask, 
Henry Michel, William Lever, and John Baily. 

The indictment stated, amongst other false- 
hoods, that the prisoners had preached to an un- 
lawful, seditious, and riotous assembly; that their 
meeting had been by previous agreement; and that 
it had been by force of arms, to the great terror 



28 

and disturbance of many of his majesty's liege sub- 
jects. Little was done the first day. The priso- 
ners, after having been brought twice into court, 
were set aside, to wait till the conclusion of some 
other trials, as a further mark, no doubt, of con- 
tempt and scorn. On the third, they were again 
brought to the bar. One of the officers, as they 
entered, pulled off their hats ; at which the lord 
mayor was exceedingly irritated, and in a stern 
voice ordered him to put them on again. On his 
being obeyed, the recorder fined each of the 
prisoners forty marks, observing that their being 
there with covered heads amounted to a contempt 
of court. 

The witnesses were then called in and exami- 
ned. The substance of the testimony which they 
gave was, that, on the fifteenth of August, they had 
seen William Penn speaking to about four hun- 
dred people, assembled in Gracechurch street, but 
could not make out a word he said. That Wil- 
liam Mead had also been heard to say something, 
but nobody could tell what. This testimony be- 
ing given, William Penn acknowledged that both 
he and his friend were present at the time and 
place mentioned. Their object in being there 
was to worship God. " We are so far," says he, 
" from recanting, or declining to vindicate the 
assembling of ourselves to preach, pray, or wor- 
ship the eternal, holy, just God, that we declare 



29 

to all the world, that we do believe it to be our in- 
dispensable duty to meet incessantly upon so good 
an account ; nor shall all the powers upon earth 
be able to divert us from reverencing and adoring 
our God who made us." As soon as he had pro- 
nounced these words, Brown, one of the sheriffs, 
exclaimed, that he was there not for worshipping 
God, but for breaking the law. William Penn 
declared that he had broken no law, and desired 
to know by what law he was prosecuted. The 
recorder answered, " The common law." Wil- 
liam begged to know where that law was to be 
found. The recorder replied, that he did not 
think it worth while to examine all the adjudged 
cases for so many years which they called common 
law, to satisfy his curiosity. Penn answered, 
very significantly, that if the law were common, 
he thought it should not be so hard to find out. 

After a great deal of insolent and unjust beha- 
viour on the part of the mayor and recorder, and 
a great deal of manly and pertinent argument on 
the part of Penn, they again remanded him to 
prison. But hearing a part of the charge to the 
jury as he was retiring, he made a stop, and, rais- 
ing his voice, exclaimed aloud, "I appeal to the 
jury, who are my judges, and this great assembly, 
whether the proceedings of the court are not most 
arbitrary, and void of all law, in endeavouring to 
give the jury their charge in the absence of the 



30 

prisoners. I say it is directly opposite to, and de- 
structive of, the undoubted right of every English 
prisoner, as Coke on the chapter of Magna Charta 
speaks." 

But this remonstrance had no effect ; the prison- 
ers were forced to their cells. The jury were now 
ordered to agree upon their verdict. Four, who 
shewed themselves disposed to favour the prison- 
ers, were abused and actually threatened by the 
recorder. They were then all of them sent out 
of court. On being summoned again, they deliv- 
ered their verdict unanimously. Guilty of speaking 
in Gracechurch street. The magistrates on the 
bench now loaded the jury with reproaches. They 
refused to take the verdict, and immediately ad- 
journed the court, sending them away for half an 
hour to reconsider it. That time having expired, 
the court again sat. The prisoners were summon- 
ed to the bar, and the jury again called upon for 
their verdict. It was given in the same as before, 
with this difference only, that it was then in writ- 
ing with the signature of all their names. 

The magistrates, enraged beyond measure at the 
conduct of the jury, did not scruple to express 
themselves in the most abusive terms in open court. 
The recorder then addressed them as follows: 
"Gentlemen, you shall not be dismissed till we 
have a verdict such as the court will accept; and 



31 

you shall be locked up without meat, drink, fircj 
and tobacco : you shall not think thus to abuse the 
court : we will have a verdict by the help of God, 
or you shall starve for it." William Penn remon- 
strated against the injustice of thus seeking to ter- 
rify the jury into changing their verdict. Then, 
turning to the jury, he said emphatically, " You 
are Englishmen. Mind your privilege. Give not 
away your right." 

In this manner they proceeded, — the court al- 
ternately calling upon the jury for their verdict, 
and then remanding them to confinement because 
it was not such as they liked, till the fifth day. 
The jury had then been two days and two nights 
without refreshment of any kind. But they ex- 
hibited even amidst such hardships an example 
of the steady independence of an English jury 
which must ever be an honour to their country. 
Despairing of a verdict more in unison with their 
wishes, these arbitrary persecutors were obliged to 
shift their ground ; and, pretending that both the 
prisoners and the jury had refused to pay the court 
fines, which they, however, had levied v^^ithout a 
shadow of justice, they ordered them all to New- 
gate. As no confinement was likely to induce 
William Penn to comply with an unjust extortion, 
it is impossible to say how long he might have re- 
mained a prisoner had not his father sent the mo- 
ney privately and thus procured his liberation. 



32 

The jury, we find, were soon after released, as 
their confinement was proved to be illegal. 

The oppression and persecution which William 
Penn had experienced had served greatly to en- 
dear him to the heart of his father. Of his excel- 
lent moral qualities and amiable dispositions he 
had always been well persuaded ; but when he saw 
a son whom he esteemed and loved, however wide- 
ly he had differed from him in religion, reviled, 
persecuted, and imprisoned, his heart clung to him 
with more than usual affection. In addition to 
these circumstances, his own health had long been 
declining, and he had no hope of recovery. Under 
the pressure of sickness and premature old age, 
which had been brought on bj change of climate 
and hard service, his bosom panted for the kind 
and tender offices of an affectionate son. During 
his ilhiess, every day's experience seemed to ren- 
der that son dearer to him, and being well aware 
that, with the religious opinions which he enter- 
tained, the existing laws of the country would 
continually expose him to suffering, he determined 
to make a death bed request to the duke of York, 
that4ie would both grant to him his own and en- 
deavour to procure the king's protection. To this 
request a satisfactory answer, promising their ser- 
vices, was received from both. A short time after 
this his son was thus addressed by him : " Son Wil- 
liam, I am weary of the world ! I would not live 



33 

over my days again, if I could command them with 
a wish ; for the snares of life are greater than the 
fears of death. This troubles me, that I have of- 
fended a gracious God. The thought of this has 
followed me to this day. Oh ! have a care of sin ! 
It is that which is the sting both of life and death. 
Three things I commend to you: — First, let no- 
thing in this world tempt you to wrong your con- 
science. I charge you do nothing against your 
conscience ; so will you keep peace at home, which 
will be a feast to you in a day of trouble. Secondly, 
whatever you design to do, lay it justly, and time 
it seasonably ; for that gives security and dispatch. 
Thirdly, be not troubled at disappointments; for if 
they may be recovered, do it; if they cannot, trou- 
ble is then vain. If you could not have helped it, 
be content; there is often peace and profit in sub- 
mitting to Providence; for afflictions make wise. 
If you could have helped it, let not your trouble 
exceed instruction for another time. These rules 
will carry you with firmness and comfort through 
this inconstant world." 

This venerable old man seems to have met the 
immediate approach of death with exemplary calm- 
ness. Looking at his son with the most compos- 
ed countenance, he said, " Son William ! if you 
and your friends keep to your plain way of 
preaching, and keep to your plain way of living, 
you will make an end of the priests to the endof 
4 



34 

the world. — Bury me by my mother. — Live all in 
love. — Shun all manner of evil — and I pray to 
God to bless you all ; and he will bless you all." 
He expired very soon after. We cannot but ad- 
mire the amiable ingenuousness of the admiral's 
last words. And as his frank avowal of his errors 
proves them to have arisen from irritability of tem- 
per rather than badness of heart, it is impossible 
not to accept his conduct afterwards as a full 
atonement. Indeed it is scarcely possible to 
wonder at the conduct which he pursued when we 
consider the peculiar circumstances of the case 
Accustomed as the admiral had been to a gay and 
licentious court, where the self denying spirit of 
religion was altogether unknown, it is not to be 
wondered that its angelic form, when brought 
forward to his view in the character of his youth- 
ful son, was mistaken for obstinacy and self will. 
For who could have expected that one so young, 
and at a period too when vice was fashion, dissi- 
pation elegance, and a dereliction of principle wit 
and spirit, should have courage to look upon the 
glittering baubles of rank, titles, and splendour 
by which he was surrounded in their true light, 
and casting them all behind him aim only at that 
true greatness of soul which genuine piety alone 
can bestow. We find however that, when time 
had proved the firmness of his son's principles and 
the purity of his motives, he yielded gradually 
to their influence, and at length died in the con- 



35 

viction that his son had chosen the only certain 
road to happiness. 

The death of his father put William Penn into 
the possession of an annual income of fifteen hun- 
dred pounds sterling, a sum which, at that time, 
was sufficient to render him not only independent 
but rich. But though now placed in affluence, 
without any claims upon his public exertions 
except what his active and ardent mind suggested, 
he was as little disposed as ever to rest from his 
labours ; but spent a considerable time after the 
death of his father in travelling about and practis- 
ing the duties of a public minister. 

On his return to London he experienced another 
of those violent outrages against liberty and the 
rights of conscience by which he had before been 
visited. Whilst preaching in a meeting house 
belonging to the Quakers, in Wheeler street, he 
was pulled down from his place and conducted to 
the Tower by officers sent for the purpose. It 
was not long before he was brought up for exami- 
nation before Sir John Robinson, one of those 
gentlemen who had been on the bench on his former 
trial. It appears that, so far from being ashamed 
of the part he had then taken, this officer of justice, 
whose duty it was to protect the rights and liber- 
ties of his country, was fully disposed to act it 
over again. Being baffled in his other attempt at 



36 

convicting him, he had recourse to extorting from 
liis prisoner the oath of allegiance, well knowing 
that his religious opinions forbade his taking it ; 
whilst a refusal to do so, when legally offered, was 
imprisonment by law. William Penn refused, as 
he expected ; when a long conversation ensued, in 
which Penn argued with him for some time with 
great coolness, till his illiberal persecutor, ventur- 
ing to impeach his moral character, his whole 
frame seemed to be set on fire, and, with all the 
ardour of conscious innocence, he exclaimed, " I 
make this bold challenge to all men, women, and 
children upon earth, justly to accuse me with 
having seen me drunk, heard me swear, utter a 
curse, or speak one obscene word, much less that 
I ever made it my practice. I speak this to God's 
glory, who has ever preserved me from the power 
of these pollutions, and who from a child begot an 
hatred in me towards them. But there is nothing 
more common than, when men are of a more 
severe life than ordinary, for loose persons to com- 
fort themselves with the conceit, that these were 
once as they themselves are ; and as if there was 
no collateral or oblique line of the compass, or 
globe, from which men might be said to come to 
the arctic pole, but directly and immediately from 
the antarctic. Thy words shall be thy burthen, and 
I trample thy slander as dirt under my feet." 
The conversation ended by sir John Robinson in- 
forming him that he must send him for six months 



37 

to Newgate, at the expiration of which time he 
might come out. To which William Penn im- 
mediately replied, "And is that all 9 Thou well 
knowest a larger imprisonment has not daunted 
me. I accept it at the hand of the Lord, and am 
contented to suffer his will. Alas ! you mistake 
your interest. This is not the way to compass 
your ends. I would have thee and all men know, 
that I scorn that religion which is not worth suf- 
fering for, and able to sustain those that are afflict- 
ed for it. Thy religion persecutes, and mine for- 
gives. I desire God to forgive you all that are 
concerned in my commitment, and I leave you all 
in perfect charity, wishing your everlasting salva- 
tion." — After this he was conducted to Newgate 
to undergo the punishment to which he was sen- 
tenced. 

During the time of his imprisonment he kept 
himself constantly employed in writing, and at the 
expiration of the period of his confinement he 
took a journey to Holland and Germany, for the 
purpose of spreading his religious principles ; but 
no very important particulars are handed down of 
his proc eedings whilst abroad. Soon after his re- 
turn home, he married Gulielma Maria Springett, 
the daughter of sir William Springett of Darling, 
in Sussex — a lady much admired for the superiority 
both of her personal and mental endowments. 



4* 



38 

After this marriage, they took up their residence 
at Rickmans worth in Hertfordshire. 

Though possessed of ample means for enjoying 
a life of retirement and leisure, William Penn 
was far from partaking of its allurements; for, hav- 
ing entered on the important office of a minister 
of the gospel, he was far from seeking to escape its 
fatigues : his time was spent in preaching, writing, 
and vindicating the cause of the oppressed. 
Amongst his writings at this time are two letters 
written to two women of quality, in Germany, who 
had shewn great liberality in granting asylums to 
persons that had been persecuted for their reli- 
gion, as well as having evinced great seriousness 
of disposition themselves. These ladies were the 
princess Elizabeth, daughter of the deceased 
Frederic the fifth prince palatine of the Rhine 
and king of Bohemia and granddaughter of king 
James the first; and Anna Maria de Homes, 
countess of Homes, the friend and companion of 
the former. 

In addition to his other avocations, he about this 
time became a manager of colonial concerns in 
New Jersey in North America; a situation which 
proved of the utmost importance in bringing him, 
by degrees, to the formation of a colony of his own. 
The nature of his situation was that of joint trus- 
tee for a person of the name of Byllinge, who had 



39 

purchased Lord Berkeley's share of the above 
mentioned colony, but who, having impoverished 
himself by the purchase, was obliged to deliver 
over his property in trust for his creditors, and had 
earnestly solicited William Penn to accept the 
charge in conjunction with Gawen Laurie of Lon- 
don and Nicholas Lucas of Hertford, two of the 
creditors. 

His new office required great exertion, and, with 
his usual alacrity, he immediately plunged into 
business. His first step was to agree with sir 
George Carteret, the proprietor of the other half 
of New Jersey, about the division of the province. 
The eastern half, which was tolerably well peo- 
pled, was allotted to the latter, and the western, in 
which no settlements had yet been made, was re- 
served for Byllinge : from this division they took 
the names of East and West New Jersey. 

It was now necessary to form a constitution for 
those who might settle in the new colony, and this 
task fell almost exclusively upon William Penn. 
The great outline of his laws may not be uninte- 
resting, as a specimen of the liberality and good 
sense of their framer. The people were to meet 
annually to choose one honest man for each pro- 
prietary. Those who were thus chosen were to 
sit in assembly, and were there to make, alter, and 
repeal laws. They were there also to choose a 



40 

governor or commissioner with twelve assistants, 
who were to execute those laws, but only during 
the pleasure of the electors. Every man was to 
be capable both of choosing and being chosen. 
No man was to be arrested, imprisoned, or con- 
demned in his estate or liberty but by twelve men 
of the neighbourhood. No man was to be impri- 
soned for debt, but his estate was to satisfy his 
creditors as far as it would go, and then he was 
to be set at liberty to work again for himself and 
family. No man was to be interrupted or mo- 
lested on account of his religion. By these sim- 
ple outlines, " he hoped that he had laid a founda- 
tion for those in after ages to understand their 
liberty both as men and Christians, and by an ad- 
herence to which they could never be brought 
into bondage but by their own consent." 

Having made these and other arrangements, he 
and his colleagues circulated a letter, in which 
they particularly invited those of their own reli- 
gious society to become settlers. We shall give 
an extract of this letter as an illustration of that 
conscientious integrity for which Willia3i Penn 
was so remarkable, as well as that liberality and 
tenderness towards the feelings and opinions of 
others which he not only always inculcated but 
invariably practised. After a concise description 
of the place and an explanation of their right and 
title, this letter proceeds thus — 



41 

*' As to the printed paper, some time since set 
forth by the creditors as a description of that 
province, we say, as to two passages in it, they 
are not so clearly and safely worded as ought to 
have been, particularly in seeming to hint, the 
winter season to be so short time, when, on fur- 
ther information, we hear it is sometimes longer, 
and sometimes shorter, than therein expressed : 
and the last clause, relating to liberty of con- 
science, we would not have any to think that it is 
promised or intended, to maintain the liberty of 
the exercise of religion by force of arms ; though 
we shall never consent to any the least violence 
on conscience, yet it was never designed to en- 
couicigc any to cxpcct by foicc ot arms to have 
liberty of conscience fenced against invaders 
thereof. 

" And be it known unto you all, in the name and 
fear of Almighty God, his glory and honour, power 
and wisdom, truth and kingdom, is dearer to 
us than all visible things ; and as our eye has been 
single, and our hearts sincere, in the living God, 
in this, as in other things, so we desire all whom 
it may concern, that all groundless jealousies may 
be judged down and watched against ; and that 
all extremes may be avoided on all hands by the 
power of the Lord ; that nothing which hurts or 
grieves the holy life of truth in any that goes or 
stays may be adhered to, nor any provocation 
given to break precious unity. 



42 

'' This am I, William Penn, moved of the Lord 
to write unto you, lest any bring a temptation 
upon themselves or others ; and, in offending the 
Lord, slay their own peace. Blessed are they that 
can see and behold him their leader, their orderer, 
their preserver, and conducter in staying and going, 
whose is the earth and the fulness thereof, and the 
cattle upon a thousand hills. And, as we formerly 
writ, we cannot but repeat our request unto you, 
that, in whomsoever a desire is to be concerned 
in this intended plantation, such would weigh the 
thing before the Lord, and not headily or rashly 
conclude on any sucb remove ; and that they do 
not offer violence to the tender love of their near 
kindred and relations, but soberly ciiid conscien- 
tiously endeavour to obtain their good will, the 
unity of friends, where they live, that, whether 
they go or stay, it may be of good favour before 
the Lord, and good people, from whom only can 
all heavenly and earthly blessings come." 

The spirit of forbearance and kindness that is 
here displayed cannot be too deeply studied, or 
too closely imitated, by all the friends of peace 
of the present day. For if there was a danger of 
its being violated at that time, when but a few 
friends were to be associated together in a place 
where they would be removed almost beyond the 
reach of temptation, how much more must there 
now be when a numerous population produces 



43 

all the variety of opinion incident to the human 
mind, and where a thousand temptations lie in 
wait to entice the yielding heart from the divine 
rule of " do as ye would be done unto." 

In the commencement of the year 1677 we find 
that WiLLLiAM Penn had removed from his house 
at Rickmansworth, and had taken possession of 
another at Worminghurst, in Sussex, where in the 
quiet of retirement he occupied himself with his 
usual diligence in the affairs of his new colony. It 
interested his attention both on account of the 
person for whom he acted, and as affording him a 
more extensive sphere of usefulness. The circu- 
lar letter above mentioned had been the means of 
his receiving many applications for shares in the 
new settlement, and he and his colleagues at 
length determined to appoint and send over com- 
missioners who should be empowered to purchase 
lands of the Indians, to adjust rights, to lay out 
allotments, and to administer, for the first year, the 
government according to the spirit of the laws 
laid down. They then made proposals for the 
immediate sale of the lands, which, on account 
of the high esteem in which William Penn was 
held, were no sooner made than accepted ; and it 
was not long before nearly two hundred persons 
set sail for their new territories. 

But, amidst his engagements of this nature, he 



44 

was called upon to interest himself about affairs of 
a more domestic nature. The Catholics having 
acted in many respects in such a manner as to ex- 
cite the strongest alarm and suspicion, the various 
acts which had been passed against them began to 
be enforced with the utmost rigour. Unfortunately 
for the other Dissenters it was difficult to make a 
distinction, as they all came under that denomina- 
tion, though the laws had been intended for the 
Catholics only. The hardships to which they were 
thus exposed at length came under the considera- 
tion of parliament, and a clause was added to a 
bill, at that time about to be passed against Po- 
pery, discriminating between Protestant Dissen- 
ters and Papists, and clearing those by the law 
who were willing to take the oath and subscribe 
the declaration contained in it. Still, however, 
the situation of the Quakers continued the same ; 
for, their religion forbidding them to swear, they 
were deprived of the intended benefit. William 
Penn, therefore, drew up a petition, requesting 
that, in the discriminating clause then under consi- 
deration, the word of a Quaker might be taken in- 
stead of his oath, with the proviso, ho.vever, that 
if any such person should be detected in a false- 
hood he should undergo the same punishment as 
if he had taken a false oath. On the petition being 
presented, he was admitted to a hearing before a 
committee of the house of commons, when he made 
the following address : 



45 

"If we ought to believe that it is our duty, ac- 
cording to the doctrine of the apostle, to be always 
ready to give an account of the hope that is in us, 
and this to every sober and private inquirer, cer- 
tainly much more ought we to hold ourselves ob- 
liged to declare with all readiness, when called to 
it by so great an authority, what is not our hope ; 
especially when our very safety is eminently con- 
cerned in so doing, and when we cannot decline 
this discrimination of ourselves from Papists with- 
out being conscious to ourselves of the guilt of 
our own sufferings, for so must every man needs 
be who suffers mutely under another character 
than that which truly belongeth to him and his 
belief. That which giveth me a more than ordi- 
nary right to speak at this time, and in this place, 
is the great abuse which I have received above any 
other of my profession ; for of a long time I have not 
only been supposed a Papist, but a seminary, a 
Jesuit, an emissary of Rome, and in pay from the 
pope ; a man dedicating my endeavours to the in- 
terests and advancements of that party. Nor hath 
this been the report of the rabble, but the jealousy 
and insinuation of persons otherwise sober and 
discreet. Nay, some zealots for the Protestant 
religion have been so far gone in this mistake, as 
not only to think ill of us, and decline our con- 
versation, but to take courage to themselves to 
prosecute us for a sort of concealed Papists ; and 
the truth is, that, what with one thing and what 



46 

with another, we have been as the woolsacks and 
common whipping stock of the kingdom: all laws 
have been let loose upon us, as if the design were 
not to reform^ hut to destroy us; and this not for 
lohat ive are, but for what we are not. It is hard 
that tve must thus bear the stripes of another inte- 
rest, and be their proxy in punishment ; hut it is 
worse that some men can please themselves in such 
a sort of administration. But mark: I would not 
be mistaken. lam far from thinking it fit, be- 
cause T exclaim against the injustice of whipping 
Quakers for Papists, that Papists should he whip- 
ped for their consciences. No: for though the 
hand, pretended to be lifted up against them, hath, 
I know not by what discretion, lighted heavily 
upon us, and we complain, yet we do not mean 
that any should take afresh aim at them^ or that 
they should come in our room ; for we must give the 
liberty we ask, and cannot he false to our princi- 
ples, though it were to i^elieve ourselves; for we 
have good will to all men, and would have none 
suffer for a truly sober and conscientious dissent 
on any hand. And I humbly take leave to add, 
that those methods against persons so qualified 
do not seem to me to be convincing, or indeed 
adequate to the reason of mankind; but this I sub- 
mit to your consideration. To conclude : I hope 
we shall be held excused of the men of that (the 
Roman Catholic) profession in giving this distin- 
guishing declaration, since it is not with design to 



47 

expose them, but, first, to pay that regard we owe 
to the inquiry of this committee, and, in the next 
place, to relieve ourselves from the daily spoil and 
ruin which now attend and threaten many hun- 
dreds of families, by the execution of laws which, 
we humbly conceive, were never made against us." 

The justice and liberality of this speech made a 
considerable impression on his hearers ; and the 
attention which he had received induced him to 
address the committee a second time, from the 
idea that there were other subjects on which he 
could give them a satisfactory explanation, and 
make both himself and those whose cause he es- 
poused better known. He therefore addressed 
them again in the following words : 

" The candid hearing our sufferings have receiv- 
ed from you, and the fair and easy entertainment 
you have given us, oblige me to add whatever 
can increase your satisfaction about us. I hope 
you do not believe I would tell you a lie. I am 
sure I should choose an ill time and place to tell 
it in ; but I thank God it is too late in the day for 
that. There are some here who have known me 
formerly. I believe they will say I was never that 
man : and it would be hard if, after a voluntary 
neglect of the advantages of this world, I should 
sit down in my retirement short of common truth. 



48 

" Excuse the length of my introduction ; it is 
for this I make it. I was bred a Protestant, and 
that strictly too. I lost nothing by time or study. 
For years, reading, travel, and observation, made 
the religion of my education the religion of my 
judgment. My alteration hath brought none to 
that belief; and though the posture I am in may 
seem odd or strange to you, yet I am conscien- 
tious ; and, till you know me better, I hope your 
charity will call it rather my unhappiness than my 
crime. I do tell you again, and here solemnly de- 
clare, in the presence of Almighty God, and be- 
fore you all, that the profession I now make, and 
the society I now adhere to, have been so far from 
altering that Protestant judgment I had, that I am 
not conscious to myself of having receded from an 
iota of any one principle maintained by those first 
Protestants and reformers of Germany, and our 
own martyrs at home, against the see of Rome. 
On the contrary, I do with great truth assure you, 
that we are of the same negative faith with the 
ancient protestant church ; and upon occasion 
shall be ready, by God's assistance, to make it ap- 
pear, that we are of the same belief as to the most 
fundamental positive articles of her creed too : and 
therefore it is we think it hard, that though we 
deny in common with her those doctrines of 
Rome so zealously protested against (from whence 
the name Protestants), yet that we should be so 
unhappy as to suffer, and that with extreme se- 



49 

verity, by those very laws on purpose made against 
the maintainers of those doctrines which we do so 
deny. We choose no suffering ; for God knows 
what we have already suffered, and how many 
sufficient and trading families are reduced to great 
poverty by it. We think ourselves an useful peo- 
ple ; we are sure we are a peaceable people : yet 
if we must still suffer, let us not suffer as Popish 
recusants, but as Protestant Dissenters. 

" But I would obviate another objection, and 
that none of the least that hath been made against 
us, namely, that we are enemies to government in 
general, and particularly dissatisfied to that which 
we live under. I think it not amiss, but very rea- 
sonable, yea, my duty, now to declare to you, and 
this I do with good conscience, in the sight of 
Almighty God, first, that we believe government to 
be God's ordinance ; and next, that this present 
government is established by the providence of 
God and the law of the land, and that it is our 
christian duty readily to obey it in all its just 
laws, and ivherein we cannot comply through ten- 
derness of conscience, iw all such cases not to re- 
vile or conspire against the government, but with 
christian humility and patience tire out all mis- 
takes about us, and wait the better information of 
those who, we believe, do as undeservedly as se- 
verely treat us ; and I know not what greater 



n* 



50 

security can he given by any people, or how any 
government can be easier from the subjects of it. 

" I shall conclude with this, that we are so far 
from esteeming it hard or ill that this house hath 
put us upon this discrimination ; that, on the con- 
trary, we value it, as we ought to do, a high 
favour, and cannot choose but see and humbly 
acknowledge God's providence therein, that you 
should give us this fair occasion to discharge our- 
selves of a burden we have not with more patience 
than injustice suffered but too many years under. 
And I hope our conversation shall always manifest 
the grateful resentment of our minds for the justice 
and civility of this opportunity ; and so I pray God 
direct you." 

These two speeches had the desired effect of 
removing a considerable degree of suspicion which 
had existed against the Quakers as disaffected 
subjects. The consequence was, the committee 
agreed to insert a clause, to the purport William 
Penn had suggested, in the bill then in agitation. 
This clause was reported to the house of commons, 
and actually passed there, after which it was car- 
ried to the house of lords ; but before it had pas- 
sed a third time through that assembly the parlia- 
ment was prorogued, and the clause thus rendered 
useless. 



51 

About this time (in the year 1681) he became 
engaged in the arrangement of his father's affairs, 
and finding that the government owed the sum of 
sixteen thousand pounds sterling to him as his 
father's executor for arrears of pay and for money 
advanced, he proposed that instead of its being 
paid to him in cash the king should make over to 
him by letters patent a tract of land situated on the 
Vilest side of the river Delaware in North America. 
There is no doubt that he was first led to this idea 
by the knowledge which he had gained of the 
country in his management of West Jersey. He 
was besides both anxious to have a secure retreat 
to offer those who were suffering under the perse- 
cutions in which he knew so well how to sympa- 
thize and to establish such a form of government 
as should, as he says, serve as an example to other 
nations. It was not merely that he desired to fa- 
vour and protect his own particular party, for he, 
as his biographer Proud expresses himself, like a 
" universal father, opened his arms to all mankind, 
without distinction of sect or party. In his re- 
public it was not the religious creed, but personal 
merit, that entitled every member of society to the 
protection and emolument of the state ;" and these 
sentiments he himself thus confirms : 

" And now give me leave to say, I have served 
the Lord, his truth and people, in my day, to my 
ability, and not sought myself, though much spent 



52 

myself; so has he firmly made me to believe, that 
I shall not, even outwardly, go without my re- 
ward ; I see his blessed hand therein that has bles- 
sed my faith and patience and long attendance 
with success. And because I have been some- 
what exercised, at times, about the nature and end 
of government among men, it is reasonable to ex- 
pect that I should endeavour to establish a just 
and righteous one in this province; that others 
may take example by it ; — truly this my heart de- 
sires. For the nations want ^precedent: and till 
vice and corrupt manners be impartially rebuked 
and punished, and till virtue and sobriety be che- 
rished, the wrath of God will hang over nations. 
I do, therefore, desire the Lord's wisdom to guide 
me, and those that may be concerned with me ; that 
we may do the thing that is truely wise and just." 



And again : 



'' For my country, I eyed the Lord in obtaining 
it ; and more was I drawn inward to look to him, 
and to owe it to his hand and power, than to any 
other way ; I have so obtained it, and desire to 
keep it; that I may not be unworthy of his love ; 
but do that which may answer his kind Provi- 
dence, and serve his truth and people : that an ex- 
ample may be set up to the nations : there may be 
room there, though not here, for such an holy ex- 
periment.'''' 



53 

And a contemporary writer thus expresses him- 
self, when speaking of William Penn's becoming 
proprietor of Pennsylvania : 

" Mr William Penn, an eminent Quaker and a 
gentleman of great knowledge and true philosophy, 

had it granted to him at this time ; which he 

designed for a retreat or asylum for the people of 
his religious persuasion, then made uneasy at 
home through the bigotry of spiritual courts, &c. 
Mr Penn, therefore, carried thither with him a 
large embarkation of those Quakers; afterwards, 
from time to time, joined by many more from 
Britain and Ireland. At his iirst arrival there he 
found many English families in it, and consider- 
able numbers of Dutch and Swedes ; who all rea- 
dily submitted to his wise and excellent regula- 
tions ; which highly merit to be known by all 
persons who would apply to colonizing. The 
true wisdom, as well as equity, of his unlimited 
tolerations of all religious persuasions, as well as 
his kind, just, and prudent treatment of the native 
Indians; also his laws, policy, and government; so 
endeared him to the planters, and so widely spread 
the fame of his whole economy, that, although so 
lately planned, it is thought, at this day (about the 
year 1760), to have more white people in it than 
any other colony on all the continent of Eng^lish 
America, New England alone excepted." 



54 

This application for the land met with consider- 
able opposition, but was at length decided in his 
favour; and he was, by charter dated at Westmin- 
ster the 4th of March 1681 and signed by writ of 
privy seal, made and constituted full and absolute 
proprietor of the tract of land which he had point- 
ed out, and invested with the power of ruling and 
governing it according to his judgment. The 
charter was made out under the name of Pennsyl- , 
vania, a name fixed upon by the king as a token 
of respect to admiral Penn, though much against 
the wishes of the son, who was apprehensive of its 
being construed into a proof of ostentation in him- 
self, and was desirous of having it called either 
New Wales or Sylvania only ; but the king said it 
was passed, and that he would take the naming of it 
upon himself, a determination for which we can- 
not but feel obliged to him, since all must be gra- 
tified at having the name of its venerable founder 
thus held in honourable remembrance throughout 
the state. 

Having now become the proprietor of a colony 
of his own, William Penn found it necessary to 
resign his charge of West New Jersey. This, 
however, he did with less reluctance^ as he had 
brought it, by this time, to such a state of maturity 
that it was likely to go on without his assistance. 
He had sent over about fourteen hundred people, 
of whom those who were come to an age to have 



55 

a character were all persons of great respectabi- 
lity. The town of Burlington had been built. 
Farms jjiacl taken the place of a wilderness of trees. 
Roads had been made. Religious meeting houses 
had been reared instead of tents covered with can- 
vas. The town was under the government of a 
respectable magistracy, and the Indians in the 
vicinity converted into friendly and peaceable 
neighbours. Under these flourishing circum- 
stances, he felt little regret at leaving it and turn- 
ing his attention to his new concern, which he 
commenced by dravv ing up an account of the pro- 
vince granted him under the great seal of England. 

To this account he annexed a copy of the char- 
ter, as well as the terms on which he meant to 
dispose of his land. In addition to this, he added 
the following admonition: "I desire all my dear 
country folks, who may be inclined to go into 
those parts, to consider seriously the premises, as 
well the inconveniency as future ease and plenty; 
that so none may move rashly, or from a fickle, but 
from a solid, mind, having above all things an eye 
to the providence of God in the disposing of them- 
selves; and I would further advise all such at least 
to have the permission, if not the good liking, of 
all their near relations, for that is both natural and 
a duty incumbent upon all. And by this, both na- 
tural affections and a friendly and profitable cor- 
respondence will be preserved between them, in 



50 

all which I beseech Almigj^ty God to direct us; 
that his blessing may attend our honest endeavours, 
and then the consequence of all our undertakings 
will turn to the glory of his great name, and all 
true happiness to us and our posterity." 

We have in this admonition a striking display of 
the amiable and conscientious character of him by 
whom it was issued ; and cannot but be struck with 
the contrast which we find in it to the proposals 
but too common in the present day of those who are 
ambitious of becoming founders of new colonies, 
but unfortunately commence their undertaking 
by setting religion, law, and morality at defiance. 
He shews, by the terms in which all his proposals 
are couched, his conviction that a strict adherence 
to every religious and moral obligation can alone 
give permanency to any undertaking ; and we, who 
now live in the second century from the establish- 
ment of his noble project and are witnesses of the 
unparalleled success with which it has been crown- 
ed, cannot fail to admire and revere the wisdom of 
him by whom it was planned. These reflections 
apply with peculiar force at this time, when at- 
tempts are making to settle communities and form 
bonds of union under a system the leading articles 
of which reject every religious principle and social 
obligation. The history of these fanatical move- 
ments to overturn the settled order of society will 
shew that whatever is intended for the permanent 



57 

amelioration of society must have its foundations 
laid deep in Christian morality. Man was born 
with a nature which requires the ties of religion, 
family, and friendship, to satisfy the cravings of his 
heart. He may increase in wealth and power ; he 
may extend his possessions to such a distance as to 
gratify his pride and almost satiate his ambition ; 
but unless the heart approve the means which have 
been used, and the natural affections be kept in 
constant exercise, time will soon prove that he re- 
quires a more solid groundwork on which to rest 
his hopes of happiness than any thing on which 
he has founded them. 

Amongst the stipulations to be agreed upon be- 
fore the purchase of land, were many very admira- 
ble regulations — such as, that one acre of trees 
should be left for every five that were cleared, and 
that oaks and mulberries should, in particular, be 
preserved, as necessary for the production of silk 
and the building of ships. But our respect for the 
wisdom and prudence of the governor is especially 
excited by the provisions he made respecting the 
Indians. " In their behalf," we are told by Clark- 
son, " it was stipulated, that, as it had been usual 
with planters to overreach them in various ways, 
whatever was sold to them in consideration of 
their furs should be sold in the public market 
place, and there suffer the test, whether good or 
bad: if good, to pass; if not good, not to be sold 
6 



58 

for good ; that the said 7iative Indians might nei- 
ther he abused nor provoked. That no man should, 
by any ways or means, in word or deed, affront or 
wi'ong any Indian^ but he should incur the same 
penalty of the law as if he had committed it 
against his fellow j)lanter; and if any Indian 
should abuse, in word or deed, any planter of the 
province, that the said planter should not be his 
own judge upon the said Indian, but that he should 
make his complaint to the governor of the pro- 
vince, or his deputy, or some inferior magistrate 
near him, who should to the utmost of his power 
take care with the king of the said Indian, that all 
reasonable satisfaction should be made to the said 
injured planter ; and that all differences between 
planters and Indians should be ended by twelve 
men, that is, by six planters and six Indians, that 
so they might live friendly together, as much as in 
them lay, preventing all occasions of heart burn- 
ings and mischief." 

There is no doubt that the humanity and love 
of equity which formed so conspicuous a part of 
William Penn's character would without any pre- 
vious experience have led him to a similar mode of 
conduct towards these children of the forest to 
that which he adopted, but he must likewise have 
been greatly confirmed in his judgment by their 
conduct towards the settlers of ]\ew Jersey, of 
whom Proud in his History of Pennsylvania gives 



an interesting account, and one which is calculated 
to make the most sceptical acknowledge their 
right to be treated as rational beings. It appears 
that some violent disorders had taken place be- 
tween some Indians and the servants of some of 
the settlers; and the natives, who, till corrupted by 
European vices, had never shewn any thing but the 
most friendly dispositions, finding that the cause 
of the evils which had arisen was drunkenness, 
had the resolution themselves to petition that the 
selling of ardent spirits might be absolutely pro- 
hibited. A circumstance which presents a forci- 
ble lesson to their more enlightened brethren of 
almost every civilized country. When ignorant 
of the nature and effects of strong liquors, intoxi- 
cation in these poor Indians could not be called 
a crime ; but when those who are well aware of 
their fatal consequences persevere in sacrificing 
every present and future good to this destructive 
vice, there is no such excuse to be offered for them. 
Happy would it be for the world, if even at this 
day mankind would receive a lesson from these 
unlettered savages, who, fearful of not having re- 
solution to withstand temptation if still presented 
to them, earnestly requested to have it removed, 
whilst those who proudly boast of superiority in 
knowledge and refinement, vainly self confident, 
instead of seeking to avoid the allurement, pre- 
tend boldly to face it, and only discover their 
own weakness by falling again and again into the 



60 

fatal snare. Whilst possessed of so little virtue 
themselves it is not to be supposed that Europeans 
would feel much disposed to guard that of their 
Indian brethern ; we cannot therefore be surprised 
to find that their request was not complied with, 
nor yet that the natives became but too readily 
victims to the snare, or rather yielded with inordi- 
nate fondness to its enticements : but we must ever 
regret that so large a portion of their vices is to be 
thus ascribed to those whose duty it was, not only 
to guard them from an accumulation of crime, 
but to endeavour to soften their natures and en- 
lighten their darkened minds. But this noble 
effort may almost be said to be the glory of Wil- 
liam Penn alone, and his stipulations in their 
favour must ever be an honour to both his heart 
and head. In the present civilized state of so- 
ciety it is a truth generally acknowledged, that 
all ranks and nations of men have a right to 
the justice and humanity of their fellow crea- 
tures ; though it must at the same time be con- 
fessed that whilst the right is acknowledged in 
words it is but too frequently denied in practice. 
But so long back as the sixteenth century, and in- 
deed to a much later date, such claims were sel- 
dom even thus far admitted ; power was the only 
rule of action ; and the poor uncultured savage 
was made to resign his dearest natural rights to 
the arbitrary will of European despots. Whilst 
justice and humanity were thus withheld from 



61 

those whose situation offered the most urgent ap- 
peal for their exercise, the name of William Penn, 
the warm advocate of the oppressed, the dispenser 
of justice, and the protector of liberty, shone forth 
in the western horizon like a splendid meteor, 
whose radiance was reflected on his native land ; 
and cold indeed must have been the heart that did 
not kindle with the fervour of esteem and admira- 
tion. 

Determined to treat the Indians as rational be- 
ings, who were capable of understanding and feel- 
ing the language of kindness and good will, he 
addressed a letter to them, and sent it by the ear- 
liest settlers that went over. This letter, we are 
persuaded, will be read with pleasure, as a speci- 
men of the gentleness and benevolence of the 
heart which dictated it. 

London, Sth Mo. 1681. 
'-My Friends, 

" There is a great God, and Power, which 
hath made the world and all things therein, to 
whom you and I and all people owe their being 
and well being, and to whom you and I must one 
day give an account for all that we have done in 
the world. 

" This great God has written his law in our 
hearts, by which we are taught and commanded to 

6* 



62 

love, and to help, and to do good to one another. 
Now this great God hath been pleased to make 
me concerned in your part of the world ; and the 
king of the country where I live hath given me a 
great province therein : but I desire to enjoy it 
with your love and consent, that we may always 
live together as neighbours and friends ; else what 
would the great God do to us, who hath made us 
(not to devour and destroy one another, but) to live 
soberly and kindly together in the world !■ Now, 
I would have you well observe, that I am very 
sensible of the unkindness and injustice which 
have been too much exercised toward you by the 
people of these parts of the world, who have 
sought themselves to make great advantages by 
you, rather than to be examples of goodness and 
patience unto you. This I hear hath been a mat- 
ter of trouble to you, and caused great grudging 
and animosities, sometimes to the shedding of 
blood, which hath made the great God angry. 
But I am not such a man, as is well known in 
my own country. I have great love and regard 
toward you, and desire to win and gain your love 
and friendship by a kind, just, and peaceable life ; 
and the people I send are of the same mind, 
and shall in all things behave themselves accord- 
ingly ; and if in any thing any shall oftend you 
or your people, you shall have a full and speedy 
satisfaction for the same, by an equal number 
of just men on both sides, that by no means you 



63 

may have just occasion of being offended against 
them. 

" I shall shortly come to see you myself, at 
which time we may more largely and freely confer 
and discourse of these matters. In the mean time, 
I have sent my commissioners to treat with you 
about land and a firm league of peace. Let me 
desire you to be kind to them and the people, and 
receive the presents and tokens which I have sent 
you, as a testimony of my good will to you, and of 
my resolution to live justly, peaceably, and friendly 
with you. 

" I am your loving friend, 

" William Penn." 

In a letter of instructions which he wrote at the 
same time, for the agents whom he sent over to 
take possession, he discovers so much tenderness 
towards those who were venturing their fortunes 
with him, and such caution, judgment, and fore- 
sight in various other particulars, especially in the 
laying out of the great city as he prophetically 
calls it, that we deem ourselves particularly for- 
tunate in being allowed to make the following ex- 
tracts from the original which is in the possession 
of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

" Instructions given by me William Penn, proprie- 
tor and governor of Pennsylvania, to my trusty 



64 

and loving friends, William Crispin, John Be-] 
zar, and JVathaniel Allen, my commissioners for 
the settling of the present colony this year trans- 
ported into the said province : — 

"That so soon as it shall please Almighty God to 
bring you well there, you take an especial care of the 
people that shall embark with you, that they may 
be accommodated with conveniences as to food, 
lodging, and safe places for their goods, concern- 
ing which my cousin William Markham,my deputy 
and now on the spot, will in a good measure be 
able to direct, that so none may be injured in their 
healths or estate, in which if you find the Dutch, j 
Swedes, or English of my side hard or griping, tak- 
ing an advantage of your circumstances, give them 
to know that they will hurt themselves thereby, for 
you can for a time be supplied on the other side, 
which may awe them to moderate prices. 

"That having taken what care you can for the 
people's good in the respects above stated, let 
the rivers and creeks be sounded on my side of 
Delaware river, especially upland, in order to set- •' 
tie a great town, and be sure to make your choice i 
w^here it is most navigable, high, dry, and healthy, ^ 
that is, where most ships may best ride, of deepest i 
draught of water, — if possible, to load or unload at 
the bank or quay side without boating or littering 
of it. 



65 

'*It would do well if the river coming into that 
creek be navigable at least for boats up into the 
country, and let the situation be high, at least dry 
and sound, and not swampy, which is best known 
by digging up two or three earths and seeing the 
bottom. 

"Such a place being found out for navigation, 
healthy situation and good soil for provision, lay 
out ten thousand acres contiguous to it in the best 
manner you can as the bounds and extent of the 
liberties of the said town. 



"Be tender of offending the Indians, and hearken 
by honest spies if you can hear that any body in- 
veighs the Indians not to sell, or to stand off and 
raise the value upon you. You cannot want those 
that will inform you ; but, to soften them to me and 
the people, let them know that you are come to sit 
down lovingly among them. Let my letter and 
conditions with my purchasers about just dealing 
with them be read in their tongue, that they may 
see we have their good in our eye equal with our 
own interest, and often reading my letter and the 
said conditions, then present their kings with what 
I send them and make a friendship and league with 
them according to those conditions, which carefully 
observe, and get them to comply with you. Be 
grave: they love not to be smiled upon. 



66 

* * * -K- •?«• 

'^Be sure to settle the figure of the town so as 
that the streets hereafter may be uniform down to 
the water from the country bounds : let the place 
for the store house be on the middle of the quay 
which will yet serve for market and state houses 
too. This may be ordered when I come, only let 
the houses be built on a line or upon a line as much 
as may be. 

"Pitch upon the very middle of the plat where 
the town or line of houses is to be laid or run, fac- 
ing the harbour and great river, for the situation 
of my house, and let it be not the tenth part of the 
town, as the conditions say (viz.) that out of every 
hundred thousand acres shall be reserved to me 
ten. But I shall be contented with less than a 
thirtieth part, to wit three hundred acres, whereas 
several will have two by purchasing two shares, 
that is ten thousand acres, and it may be fitting for 
me to exceed a little. 

" The distance of each house from the creek or 
harbour should be in my judgment a measured 
quarter of a mile, at least two hundred paces, be- 
cause of building hereafter streets downwards to 
the harbour. 

" Let every house be placed, if the person 
pleases,, in the middle of its plat as to the breadth 



67 

Avay of it, that so there may be ground on each side 
for gardens or orchards or fields. That it may 
be a green country town which will never be 
burnt, and always be wholesome. 

" I judge that ye must be guided in your breadth 
of land by what you can get that is unplanled 
and will be parted with ; but, so far as I can 
guess at this distance, methinks, in a city, each 
share to have fifty poles upon the front to the river 
and the rest backward will be sufficient. But per- 
haps you may have more and perhaps you will not 
have so much space to allow; herein follow your 
land and your situation, being always just to pro- 
portion. 

" Be sure to keep the conditions hereunto af- 
fixed, and see that no vice or evil conversation go 
uncomplained or punished in any, that God be 
not provoked to wrath against the country." 

Not long after this, William Penn had the mis- 
fortune to lose his mother. The death of a tender 
affectionate parent must ever be a severe trial to 
such a son, and to his mother he owed a more than 
common debt of gratitude. She had ever acted 
the part of a mediator between his father and him- 
self, and had supported and comforted him during 
the time that he was banished from the paternal 
Toof. The grief which he experienced on this oc- 



68 

easion had a considerable effect on his health,*'' 
though we cannot but suppose he resigned him- 
self to the afflictive dispensation with the submis- 
sion becoming a Christian. He was however 
drawn from the contemplation of this melancholy 
event by the attention which his colonial concerns 
required. His first care was to secure the posses- 
sion both of the land first granted, and of another : 
portion lying contiguous to it, and which was ob- ; 
tained from the duke of York. He next drew up , 
and published a frame of government or constitu- ' 
tion of Pennsylvania, to which he annexed a pre- - 
face which shews how deeply the subjects of law 
and government had engrossed his attention. A 
short extract from this preface we will here insert, 
believing that the just and philosophical senti- 
ments which it contains are not beyond the com- 
prehension even of juvenile readers. 

" But, lastly, when all is said, there is hardly 
one frame of government in the world, so ill de- 
signed by its first founders, that in good hands 
would not do well enough ; and story tells us, that 
the best in ill ones can do nothing that is great 
and good ; witness the Jewish and Roman states. 
Governments, like clocks, go from the motion men 
give them ; and as governments are made and 
moved by men, so by them they are ruined too. 
Wherefore, governments rather depend upon men 
than men upon governments. Let men be good, 



69 

and the government cannot be bad. If it be ill, they 
will ewe it. But if men be bad^ let the govern- 
ment be never so good, they will endeavour to 
warp and spoil it to their turn. 

" I know some say, let us have good laws, and 
no matter for the men that execute them. But let 
them consider, that though good laws do well 
good men do better ; for good laws may want good 
men^ and be abolished or invaded by ill men ; but 
good men will never want good laws, nor suffer ill 
ones. 'Tis true good laws have some awe upon ill 
ministers, but that is where these have not power 
to escape or abolish them, and where the people 
are generally wise and good: but a loose and de- 
praved people (which is to the question) love laws 
and an administration like themselves. That 
therefore tohich makes a good constitution must 
keep it; namely, men of wisdom and virtue, quali- 
ties that, because they descend not with worldly 
inheritances, must be car'efully propagated by a 
virtuous education of youth, for which after ages 
ivill owe more to the care and prudence of founders 
and the successive magistracy, than to their pa- 
rents for their private patrimonies. 

" These considerations of the weight of govern- 
ment, and the nice and various opinions about it, 
made it uneasy to me to think of publishing the 
ensuing frame and conditional laws, foreseeing 

7 



both the censures they will meet with from men 
of different humours and engagements, and the 
occasion they may give of discourse beyond my ' 
design. 

"But next to the power of necessity, which is al 
solicitor that will take no denial, this induced me 
to a compliance, that we have, with reverence to 
God and good conscience to men, to the best of 
our skill contrived and composed the frame and 
laws of this government to the great end of go- 
vernment, to support power in reverence with the 
people^ and to secure the people from the abuse of 
power, that they may be free by their just obe- 
dience, and the magistrates honourable for their 
just administration ; for liberty without obedience 
is confusion, and obedience without liberty is sla- 
very. To carry this evenness is partly owing to the 
constitution, and partly to the magistracy. Where 
either of these fail, government will be subject to 
convulsions ; but where both are wanting, it must 
be totally subverted : then where both meet, the 
government is like to endure, which I humbly pray 
and hope God will please to make the lot of this of 
Pennsylvania. Amen." 

As the time for his setting sail drew near, how- 
ever, the claims of conjugal and parental affection 
began to weigh heavy on his heart. The important 
subject of education could not fail to be looked 



71 

upon by him, with such a mind as he possessed, 
in the serious light it deserved, and he no doubt 
felt considerable reluctance to leave his children 
at a time when his guiding hand might be of so 
much consequence to their future character, as well 
as to throw the whole of such a charge upon his 
wife. To make up, in the best way in his power, 
to his children for the loss of his personal instruc- 
tion, and to his wife of his assistance, he determin- 
ed to leave them his best advice in writing, which 
he did in the following letter, the careful perusal 
of which we cannot too earnestly recommend to 
our young readers : 

" My dear Wife and Children, 

" My love, which neither sea, nor land, nor 
death itself, can extinguish or lessen towards you, 
most endearedly visits you with eternal embraces, 
and will abide with you for ever : and may the God 
of my life watch over you, and bless you, and do 
you good in this world and for ever ! — Some things 
are upon my spirit to leave with you in your re- 
spective capacities, as I am to one a husband, and 
to the rest a father, if I should never see you more 
in this world. 

" My dear wife ! remember thou wast the love 
of my youth, and much the joy of my life ; the most 
beloved, as well as most worthy, of all my earthly 
comforts : and the reason of that love was more 



Ijiy inward than thy outward excellencies, which 
yet were many. God knows, and thou knowest it, 
1 can say it was a match of Providence's making; 
and God's image in us both was the first thing, 
and the most amiable and engaging ornament in 
our eyes. Now I am to leave thee, and that with- 
out knowing whether I shall ever see thee more 
in this world, take my counsel into thy bosom, 
and let it dwell with thee in my stead while thou 
livest. 

" First : Let the fear of the Lord and a zeal and 
love to his glory dwell richly in thy heart; and 
thou wilt watch for good over thyself and thy dear 
children and family, that no rude, light, or bad 
thing be committed: else God will be offended, 
and he will repent himself of the good he intends 
thee and thine. 

" Secondly : Be diligent in meetings for worship 
and business; stir up thyself and others herein; it 
is thy duty and place : and let meetings be kept 
once a day in the family to wait upon the Lord, 
who has given us much time for ourselves : and, 
my dearest, to make thy family matters easy to 
thee, divide thy time, and be regular: it is easy 
and sweet; thy retirement will afford thee to do it: 
as in the morning to view the business of the house 
and fix it as thou desirest, seeing all be in order; 
that by thy counsel all may move, and to thee ren- 



der an account every evening. The time for work, 
for walking, for meals, may be certain, at least as 
near as may be : and grieve not thyself with care- 
less servants ; they will disorder thee ; rather pay 
them, and let them go, if they will not be better by 
admonitions ; this is best to avoid many words, 
which I know wound the soul, and effend the Lord. 
*' Thirdly: Cast up thy income and see what it 
daily amounts to; by which thou mayest be sure to 
have it in thy sight and power to keep within com- 
pass : and I beseech thee to live low and sparingly 
till my debts are paid ; and then enlarge as thou 
seest it convenient. Remember thy mother's ex- 
ample, when thy father's public spiritedness had 
worsted his estate (which is my case). I know 
thou lovest plain things, and art averse to the 
pomps of the world ; a nobility natural to thee. I 
write not as doubtful, but to quicken thee, for my 
sake, to be more diligent herein, knowing that 
God will bless thy care, and thy poor children and 
thee for it. My mind is wrapt up in a saying of 
thy father's, ' I desire not riches, but to owe no- 
thing;' and truly that is wealth, and more than 
enough to live is a snare attended with many sor- 
rows. I need not bid thee be humble, for thou 
art so ; nor meek and patient, for it is much of thy 
natural disposition : but I pray thee be oft in re- 
tirement with the Lord, and guard against en- 
croaching friendships. Keep them at arm's end; 

for it is giving away our power, aye and self too, 

7# 



74 

into the possession of another; and that which 
might seem engaging in the beginning may prove a 
yoke too hard and heavy in the end. Wherefore 
keep dominion over thyself, and let thy children, 
good meetings, and friends, be the pleasure of thy 
life. 

* 
" Fourthly : And now, my dearest, let me re- 
commend to thy care my dear children ; abun- 
dantly beloved of me, as the Lord's blessings and 
the sweet pledges of our mutual and endeared af- 
fection. Above all things endeavour to breed 
them up in the love of virtue, and that holy plain 
way of it which we have lived in, that the world 
in no part of it get into my family. I had rather 
they were homely than finely bred as to outward 
behaviour ; yet I love sweetness mixed with gra- 
vity, and cheerfulness tempered with sobriety. 
Religion in the heart leads into this true civility, 
teaching men and women to be mild and cour- 
teous in their behaviour, an accomplishment 
worthy indeed of praise. 

" Fifthly : Next breed them up in a love one of 
another : tell them it is the charge I left behind 
me ; and that it is the way to have the love and 
blessing of God upon them ; also what his person 
is who hates or calls his brother fool. Sometimes 
separate them, but not long; and allow them to 
send and give each other small things to endear 



75 

one another with : Once more I say, tell them it 
was my counsel they should be tender and affec- 
tionate one to another. For their learning be 
liberal. Spare no cost ; for by such parsimony all 
is lost that is saved : but let it be useful knowledge, 
such as is consistent with truth and godliness, not 
cherishing a vain conversation, or idle mind ; but 
ingenuity mixed with industry is good for the body 
and mind too. I recommend the useful parts of 
mathematics, as building houses or ships, measur- 
ing, surveying, dialling, navigation ; but agricul- 
ture is especially in my eye : let my children be 
husbandmen and housewives ; it is industrious, 
healthy, honest, and of good example : like Abra- 
ham and the holy ancients, who pleased God and 
obtained a good report. This leads to consider 
the works of God and nature, of things that are 
good ; and diverts the mind from being taken up 
with the vain arts and inventions of a luxurious 
world. It is commendable in the princes of Ger- 
many, and the nobles of that empire, that they 
have all their children instructed in some useful oc- 
cupation. Rather keep an ingenious person in the 
house to teach them, than send them to schools, 
too many evil impressions being commonly re- 
ceived there. Be sure to observe their genius, and 
do not cross it as to learning : let them not dwell 
too long on one thing ; but let their change be 
agreeable, and all their diversions have some little 
bodily labour in them. When grown big, have 



76 ! 

most care for them ; for then there are more snares^ 
for them both within and without. When mar- 
riageable, see that they have worthy persons inj 
their eye, of good life, and good fame for piety andi 
understanding. I need no wealth, but sufficiency ; 
and be sure their love be dear, fervent, and mu- 
tual, that it may be happy for them. I choose not 
they should be married to earthly covetous kin- 
dred; and of cities and towns of concourse be- 
ware ; the world is apt to stick close to those who 
have lived and got wealth there : a country life 
and estate I like best for my children. I prefer a 
decent mansion of an hundred pounds per annum 
before ten thousand pounds in London, or such 
like place, in a way of trade. In fine, my dear, 
endeavour to breed them dutiful to the Lord, and 
his blessed light, truth, and grace, in their hearts, 
who is their Creator, and his fear will grow up with 
them. ' Teach a child,' says the Wise Man, ' the 
way thou wilt have him to walk, and when he is 
old he will not forget it.' Next, obedience to 
thee, their dear mother ; and that not for wrath, 
but for conscience' sake; liberal to the poor, pitiful 
to the miserable, humble and kind to all ; and may 
my God make thee a blessing, and give thee com- 
fort in our dear children ; and in age gather thee to 
the joy and blessedness of the just (where no death 
shall separate us) for ever! 

" And now, my dear children, that are the gifts 



77 

and mercies of the God of your tender father, hear 
my counsel and lay it up in your hearts ; love it 
more than treasure and follow it, and you shall be 
blessed here and happy hereafter. 

" In the first place, ' remember your Creator in 
the days of your youth.' It was the glory of Israel 
in the second of Jeremiah : and how did God bless 
Josiah because he feared him in his youth ! and so 
he did Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. O, my dear 
children, remember and fear and serve him who 
made you, and gave you to me and your dear mo- 
ther ; that you may live to him and glorify him in 
your generations ! 

" To do this, in your youthful days seek after 
the Lord, that you may find him ; remembering his 
great love in creating you ; that you are not beasts, 
plants, or stones, but that he has kept you, and 
given you his grace within and substance without, 
and provided plentifully for you. This remember 
in your youth, that you may be kept from the evil of 
the world : for in age it will be harder to overcome 
the temptations of it. 

" Wherefore, my dear children, eschew the ap- 
pearance of evil, and love and cleave to that in 
your hearts which shews you evil from good, and 
tells you when you do amiss and reproves you for 
it. It is the light of Christ that he has given you for 



78 

your salvation. If you do this, and follow my 
counsel, God will bless you in this world and give 
you an inheritance in that which shall never have 
an end. For the light of Jesus is of a purifying 
nature ; it seasons those who love it and take heed 
to it; and never leaves such, till it has brought jj 
them to the city of God that has foundations. O 
that ye may be seasoned with the gracious nature 
of it ! Hide it in your hearts, and flee, my dear 
children, from all youthful lusts; the vain sports, 
pastimes, and pleasures of the world ; ' redeeming 
the time because the days are evil !' — You are now 
beginning to live. — What would some give for 
your time ! Oh ! I could have lived better, were 
T, as you, in the flower of youth. — Therefore love 
and fear the Lord, keep close to meetings, and de- 
light to wait on the Lord God of your father and 
mother, among his despised people, as we have 
done ; and count it your honour to be members of 
that society, and heirs of that living fellowship 
which is enjoyed among them, for the experience 
of which your father's soul blesseth the Lord for 
ever. 

" Next, be obedient to your dear mother, a wo- 
man whose virtue and good name is an honour to 
you ; for she hath been exceeded by none in her 
time for her plainness, integrity, industry, huma- 
nity, virtue, and good understanding; qualities not - 
usual among women of her worldly condition and 



quality. Therefore honour and obey her, my dear 
children, as your mother, and your father's love 
and delight ; nay love her too, for she loved your 
father with a deep and upright love, choosing him 
before all her many suitors : and though she be of 
a delicate constitution and noble spirit, yet she 
descended to the utmost tenderness and care for 
you, performing the painfulest acts of service to 
i you in your infancy, as a mother and a nurse too. 
I charge you, before the Lord, honour and obey, 
love and cherish your dear mother. 

" Next,* betake yourselves to some honest in- 
dustrious course of life, and that not of sordid 
covetousness, but for example and to avoid idle- 
ness. And if you change your condition and 
marry, choose, with the knowledge and consent of 
your mother if living, or of guardians, or those that 
have the charge of you. Mind neither beauty nor 
riches, but the fear of the Lord, and a sweet and 
amiable disposition, such as you can love above all 
this world, and that may make your habitations 
pleasant and desirable to you. 

" And being married, be tender, affectionate, 
patient, and meek. Live in the fear of the Lord, 
and he will bless you and your offspring. Be sure 
to live within compass ; borrow not, neither be be- 
holden to any. Ruin not yourselves by kindness 
to others; for that exceeds the due bounds of 



80 

friendship, neither will a true friend expect it. 
Small matters I heed not. 

" Let your industry and parsimony go no farther 
than for a sufficiency for life, and to make a pro- 
vision for your children, and that in moderation, 
if the Lord gives you any. I charge you help the 
poor and needy; let the Lord have a voluntary 
share of your income for the good of the poor, 
both in our society and others, for we are all his 
creatures; remembering that 'he that giveth to 
the poor lendeth to the Lord.' 

<« 

"Know well your incomings; and your outgo- 
ings may be better regulated. Love not money 
nor the world: use them only, and they will serve 
you; but if you love them, you serve them, which 
will debase your spirits as well as offend the Lord. 

"Pity the distressed, and hold out a hand of" 
help to them ; it may be your case ; and as you . 
mete to others God will mete to you again. 

"Be humble and gentle in your conversation; 
of few words, I charge you ; but always pertinent 
when you speak, hearing out before you attempt 
to answer, and then speaking as if you would per-' 
suade, not impose. 

" Affront none, neither revenge the affronts that' 



81 

are done to you ; but forgive, and you shall be for- 
given of your Heavenly Father. 

"In making friends consider well first; and 
when you are fixed be true, not wavering by re- 
ports nor deserting in afl^liction, for that becomes 
not the good and virtuous. 

" Watch against anger, neither speak nor act in 
it ; for, like drunkenness, it makes a man a beast, 
and throws people into desperate inconveniences. 

"Avoid flatterers, for they are thieves in dis- 
guise ; their praise is costly, designing to get by 
those they bespeak; they are the worst of crea- 
tures; they lie to flatter, and flatter to cheat; and, 
which is worse, if you believe them you cheat 
yourselves most dangerously. But the virtuous, 
though poor, love, cherish, and prefer. Remem- 
ber David, who asking the Lord, 'Who shall abide 
in thy tabernacle'? who shall dwell upon thy holy 
hilH' answers, 'He that walketh uprightly, work- 
eth righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his 
heart; in whose eyes the vile person is contemned, 
but honoureth them who fear the Lord.' 

"Next, my children, be temperate in all things; 
in your diet, for that is physic by prevention; it 
keeps, nay, it makes people healthy, and their ge- 
neration sound. This is exclusive of the spiritual 
8 



82 

advantage it brings. Be also plain in your appa- 
rel ; keep out that lust which reigns too much over 
some ; let your virtues be your ornaments, remem- 
bering ' life is more than food, and the body than 
raiment.' Let your furniture be simple and cheap. 
Avoid pride, avarice, and luxury. Read my 'No 
Cross, no Crown.' There is instruction. — Make 
your conversation with the most emiment for wis- 
dom and piety ; and shun all wicked men as you 
hope for the blessing of God, and the comfort of 
your father's living and dying prayers. Be sure 
you speak no evil of any, no, not of the meanest; 
much less of your superiors, as magistrates, guar- i 
dians, tutors, teachers, and elders in Christ. 1 

"Be no busy bodies; meddle not with other j 

folk's matters, but when in conscience and duty { 

pressed; for it procures trouble, and is ill manners, j 

and very unseemly to wise men. I 

"In your families remember Abraham, Moses, 
and Joshua, their integrity to the Lord; and do as | 
you have them for examples. 

"Let the fear and service of the living God be 
encouraged in your houses, and that plainness, 
sobriety, and moderation in all things, as becom- 
eth God's chosen people ; and as I advise you, my 
beloved children, do you counsel yours, if God 
should you give any. Yea, I counsel and command 



83 

them as my posterity, that they love and serve the 
Lord God with an upright heart, that he may bless 
you and yours from generation to generation. 

"And as for you, who are likely to be concern- 
ed in the government of Pennsylvania and my parts 
of East Jersey, especially the first, I do charge you 
before the Lord God and his holy angels, that you 
be lowly, diligent, and tender, fearing God, loving 
the people, and hating covetousness. Let justice 
have its impartial course, and the law free passage. 
Though to your loss, protect no man against it ; for 
you are not above the law, but the law above you. 
Live therefore the lives yourselves you would have 
the people live, and then you have the right and 
boldness to punish the transgressor. Keep upon 
the square, for God sees you: therefore do your 
duty, and be sure you see with your own eyes, and 
hear with your own ears. Entertain no lurchers, 
cherish no informers for gain or revenge ; use no 
tricks; fly to no devices to support or cover injus- 
tice; but let your hearts be upright before the 
Lord, trusting in him above the contrivances of 
men, and none shall be able to hurt or supplant. 

"Oh! the Lord is a strong God, and he can do 
whatsoever he pleases; and though men consider 
it not, it is the Lord that rules and overrules in 
the kingdoms of men, and he builds up, and pulls 
down. I, your father, am the man that can say, 



84 

• He that trusts in the Lord shall not be confound- 
ed. But God, in due time, will make his enemies 
be at peace with him.' 

"If you thus behave yourselves, and so become 
'a terror to evil doers and a praise to them that do 
well,' God, my God, will be with you in wisdom 
and a sound mind, and make you blessed instru- 
ments in his hand for the settlements of some of 
those desolate parts of the world, which my soul 
desires above all worldly honours and riches, both 
for you that go and you that stay ; you that govern 
and you that are governed; that in the end you 
may be gathered with me to the rest of God. 

" Finally, my children, love one another with a 
true endeared love, and your dear relations on 
both sides, and take care to preserve tender affec- 
tion in your children to each other ; often mar- 
rying within themselves, so as it be without the 
bounds forbidden in Gods' law, that so they may 
not, like the forgetting unnatural world, grow out 
of kindred and as cold as strangers ; but, as be- 
comes a truly natural and Christian stock, you and 
yours after you may live in the pure and fervent 
love of God towards one another, as becometh 
brethren in the spiritual and natural relation. 

" So, my God, that hath blessed me with his 
abundant mercies, both of this and the other and 



85 

better life, be with you all, guide you by his coun- 
sel, bless you, and bring you to his eternal glory ! 
that you may shine, my dear children, in the fir- 
mament of God's power with the blessed spirits of 
the just, that celestial family, praising and admir- 
ing him, the God and Father of it, for ever. For 
there is no God like unto him ; the God of Isaac 
and of Jacob, the God of the prophets and apos- 
tles, and martyrs of Jesus, in whom I live for ever. 

" So farewell to my thrice dearly beloved wife 
and children ! 

'^ Yours, as God pleaseth, in that which no wa- 
ters can quench, no time forget, nor dis- 
tance wear away, but remains for ever, 



"William Penn. 



a fVorminghurst, fourth of 
sixth month, 1682." 



A renewal of the persecutions against the Qua- 
kers in England offered strong inducements to 
many of them to accompany Willlam Penn in the 
voyage for which he was now preparing to his new 
colony ; so that about a hundred persons, chiefly 
Quakers, sailed with him, in the ship Welcome, in 
the month of August 1 682. During the passage he 
had considerable exercise for his benevolence in 
consequence of the small pox, which broke cut with 
8* 



86 

so much violence amongst the passengers, that no 
less than thirty of them died. William Penn, as 
might be expected, behaved with great humanity, 
and administered comfort in various forms to the 
sufferers. At length after a passage of a little more 
than six months they had the satisfaction of finding 
themselves in the river Delaware, which they sailed 
up, amidst loud acclamations of welcome from the 
Dutch and Swedes who were settled on its banks 
as well as the English whom he had sent over the 
year before, to take possession of the land in his 
name. On the 24th of October William Penn 
landed at Newcastle in Delaware, a day which 
ought ever to be held in grateful remembrance by 
the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and ought to be 
commemorated on every returning anniversary. 
•' While our brethren of Massachusetts," says one 
who, though not a native of this country, has asso- 
ciated himself so closely with her honour and 
prosperity that she now proudly claims him as her 
own, " commemorate every year, in the dreary 
time of winter, the landing of their ancestors on 
the barren rock of Plymouth, which their gratitude 
has consecrated to perpetual veneration ; shall we 
suffer the epoch of the arrival of our great founder 
and his venerable band of followers to pass away 
unnoticed'?" 

After taking possession of the country and mak- 
ing various other necessary arrangements, he cal- 



87 

Jed a general assembly in order to confirm all the 
laws and regulations previously agreed upon in 
England. To pretend to particularize all the ar- 
ticles of the constitution or code of laws which 
was then adopted would be equally inconsistent 
and incompatible with our plan. 

We cannot however forbear mentioning a few 
of those leading points which shew so conspicu- 
ously the wisdom, benevolence, and prudence, of 
the lawgiver. And here, as in every instance, we 
find his fundamental and governing principle was 
religion, — that vital religion which takes its root 
in the heart and governs the actions by its own 
pure spirit. Equally free therefore from arbitrary 
restrictions and from that baneful laxity of princi- 
ple which under the pretence of liberality seeks to 
undermine the whole Christian plan, he, at the 
same time that he admitted liberty of conscience 
to all, made it a necessary requisite that those who 
were appointed to any public offices or places of 
trust should not only be of good moral characters 
but also professed Christians. Thus, though he 
did not pretend to dictate to his fellow Christians 
in what particular mode they should worship and 
serve their Creator, he took care to shew that he 
considered those who lost sight of their duty to 
the great Governor of the universe as but little to 
be trusted in their transactions with their fellow 
ereatures. Another article was that public schools 



88- 

should be erected, and that every child should be 
taught to read and write 'till arrived at the age of 
twelve, after which he was to learn some useful 
trade or profession, and so be preserved at once 
from the dangers of ignorance and the temptations 
of idleness. 

With regard to the criminal laws, as he very 
justly considered that the great object of punish- 
ment was the reformation of the offender, he only 
admitted of the infliction of death in cases of mur- 
der or treason against the state ; and in all other 
cases solitary confinement and useful employment. 

Many other laws, equally liberal, humane, and 
wise, were made and confirmed. " The assem- 
bly," says Mr Wharton in his Discourse before the 
Society for the Commemoration of the Landing 
of William Penn, " which met at Upland or Ches- 
ter in December 1682, and which in a session of 
three days — about the length of a modern speech 
— adopted a constitution and passed sixty-one laws, 
ought to occupy a distinguished station in our his- 
tory." 

Not considering the king's grant a sufficient 
authority for taking possession of the country, 
without its being likewise ceded to him by the 
native inhabitants themselves, William Penn had 
empowered his commissioners, on their first com- 



89 

ing over to treat with them for the purchase of 
the land, which treaty it now became necessary for 
him to confirm. 

Mr Rawle, in an address delivered before the 
Historical Society of this city, says, when speak- 
ing on this subject, that " William Penn did not 
first set the example of these acts of strict justice, 
although he closely conformed to the best exam- 
ples of others. In Europe he has frequently been 
applauded for having led the way, but he himself 
never claimed this credit, and his other merits are 
sufficiently great to bear the destitution of this." 
We believe however that it may safely be affirm- 
ed that he was the first to treat them with that 
tender and protecting kindness which was so well 
calculated to soften and improve their natures. 
We do not find him making any sudden or violent 
efforts to convert them to Christianity whilst their 
minds were yet unfit for the reception of it ; but as 
a skilful husbandman would seek to prepare the 
ground before he put in the seed, so we find this 
wise and judicious man striving first to gain their 
confidence, aiming no doubt at leading them gra- 
dually, by a love of the fruits, to seek for them- 
selves the same tree of knowledge from which 
they found him to have derived so much, and 
which was intended by its great planter to over- 
shadow all the nations of the earth. That such 
effects might have been produced is no very ^x- 



90 

travagant supposition, if all the successors of 
William Penn had preserved the same undevia- 
ting and conscientious line of conduct towards 
these unfortunate people ; for many very interest- 
ing proofs are to be found of the affection and 
gratitude for the great Onas* which was felt many 
years after by those whose forefathers had received 
this kindness. 

In the following note from Proud we have seve- 
ral striking expressions of their gratitude : — 

" At a treaty, held with the Six Nations, at Phi- 
ladelphia, in July 1742, in governor Thomas's 
administration, Ganassatego, chief of the Ononda- 
gos, said, ' We are all very sensible of the kind 
regard which that good man, William Penn, had 
for all the Indians/ 



* This word, in the language of the Iroquois or Six Nations, 
means a quill. It is probable that the companions of William 
Penn thus interpreted his name to the Indians. The Delawares 
called him Miqiion, which in their language means the same thing. 

But the true signification of William Penn's name belongs to 
the Welsh or Celtic language, from which it is derived. In that 
ancient tongue, the word Pen means a head, and metaphorically a 
leader or chief. If this had been known to the Indians, they would 
not have called our venerable founder by the insignificant name of 
quill, but would have given him that of Sakima, a sachem or chief, 
by which his dignity and influence would have been increased. But 
perhaps he was unwilling to take that honourable distinction, as we 
know he objected to giving his name to Pennsylvania. — A^ote by 
Mr J)u Ponceau. 



91 

"At this treaty, these Indians thus expressed 
themselves respecting James Logan, which fur- 
ther shews the sense and gratitude of that people 
when they are well treated : ' Brethen, we called 
at our old friend James Logan's in our way to 
this city, and, to our grief, we found him hid in 
the bushes, and retired through infirmities from 
public business. We pressed him to leave his re- 
tirement, and prevailed with him to assist once 
more, on our account, at your councils. We hope, 
notwithstanding his age and the effects of a fit of 
sickness which we understand has hurt his consti- 
tution, that he may yet continue a long time to 
assist this province with his counsels. He is a wise 
man, and a fast friend to the Indians. And we 
desire, when his soul goes to God, you may choose 
in his room just such another person, of the same 
prudence and ability in counselling ; and of the 
same tender disposition and affection for the In- 
dians In testimony of our gratitude for all 

his services, and because he was so good as to 
leave his country house and follow us to town, 
and be at the trouble, in this his advanced age, to 
attend the council, We present him with this 
bundle of skins. ^ 

"After the governor had concluded, James Lo- 
gan replied to that part of the speech which re- 
lated to him, and said — ' That, not only upon the 
account of his lameness, of which the Indians 



92 

themselves were witnesses, but on account of 
another indisposition which about three years 
since had laid him under an incapacity of expres- 
sing himself with his former usual freedom, he 
had been obliged to live retired in the country. 
But that our first proprietor, the honourable Wil- 
liam Penn, who had ever been a father and true 
friend to all the Indians, having above forty years 
since recommended them to his particular care, 
he had always, from his own inclination as well 
as from that strict charge, endeavoured to con- 
vince all the Indians that he was their true friend; 
and was now well pleased that after a tract of so 
many years they were not insensible of it. He 
thanked them kindly for their present, and hear- 
tily joined with them in their desires that the go- 
vernment may always be furnished with persons of 
equally good inclinations, and not only with such 
but also with better abilities, to serve them.' " 

" At a council held with the Seneca and other 
Indians, in Philadelphia, in July 1749, in the ad- 
ministration of James Hamilton, Ogaushtash, in 
part of his speech, thus expresses himself, ' We 
recommend it to the governor to tread in the steps 
of those wise people who have held the reins of 
government before him in being good and kind 
to the Indians. Do, brother, make it your study 
to consult the interest of our nations; as you have 
so large an authority, you can do us much good, 



93 

or harm ; we would, therefore, engage your influ- 
ence and affections for us ; that the same harmony 
and mutual affections may subsist during your go- 
vernment which so happily subsisted in former 
times, nay from the first settlement of this pro- 
vince by our good friend the great William 
Penn.' 

" At a treaty held at Easton, in Pennsylvania, 
with the Indians, in 1756, in Governor Morris's 
administration, Teedyuscung, the Delaware chief, 
spoke as follows : ' Brother Onas, and the people 
of Pennsylvania. We rejoice to hear from you that 
you are willing to renew the old good understand- 
ing, and that you call to mind the first treaties of 
friendship made by Onas, our great friend, de- 
ceased, with our forefathers, when himself and his 
people first came over here. We take hold of 
these treaties with both our hands, and desire you 
will do the same ; that a good understanding and 
true friendship may be re-established. Let us 
both take hold of these treaties with all our strength 
we beseech you. We, on our side, will certainly 
do it.' Again, on concluding a peace, in July, the 
same year, Teedyuscung said, — ' I wish the same 
good spirit that possessed the"good old man, Wil- 
liam Penn, who was a friend to the Indians, may 
inspire the people of this province, at this time.' " 

These instances sufliciently prove that the In- 
9 



94 

dian heart is not the stern inflexible material that 
is often represented. It may suit those whose in- 
terest it is to oppress, to cry out against their sa- 
vage and untameable natures ; but let all go upon 
the principles of kindness and justice ; let all seek 
to establish a bond of brotherhood and good will, 
leaving to these poor persecuted beings the little 
that yet remains to them ; and we doubt not it will 
soon be found that there exists not amongst them 
a heart so hard that it cannot be melted by kind- 
ness. 

A time and place having been appointed, Wil- 
liam Penn, accompanied by a few of his friends, 
met the Indians, and gave them in purchase for 
their land such articles of merchandize as they 
deemed an equivalent for it, entering at the same 
time into a solemn engagement to treat them in 
every respect as friends and brothers. It is much 
to be regretted that a particular account of the 
whole transaction has not been handed down to 
posterity. Tradition, however, informs us that it 
took place under an elm tree of extraordinary 
size, which grew on the banks of the Delaware, 
near a large Indian settlement called Shackamax- 
on, where Kensington now stands. This tree was 
blown down in the storm of 1810, and the trunk 
after its fall was examined and measured, and 
found to be twenty-four feet in circumference, 
and its age two hundred and eighty-three years. 



95 

Of course every branch and fibre of a tree which 
had canopied the head of a man who had done so 
much honour to his species^ could not fail to be 
held almost as sacred. It has consequently been 
distributed not only over this but other countries, 
in the form of walking sticks, snuff boxes, and a 
variety of other articles. A large piece was sent 
to John Penn, of Stoke Park in England, which 
was made an ornament for one of his apartments, 
having the following inscription engraved on it to 
tell the history of its honours. 

" A remnant of the great Elm, under which the 
Treaty was held between William Penn and the 
Indians, soon after his landing in America, A. D. 
1682, and which grew at Kensington, near Phila- 
delphia, till the autumn of the year 1810, when it 
fell during a storm. Was presented to his grand- 
son, John Penn, Esq." 

"Mr West, who has introduced this tree into 
his celebrated picture representing the treaty, 
has mentioned a peculiar mark of respect shewn 
to it, in more recent times, in the following words : 
— ' This tree, which was held in the highest ve- 
neration by the original inhabitants of my native 
country, by the first settlers, and by their descen- 
dants, and to which I well remember about the year 
1755, when a boy, often resorting with my school- 
fellows, [the spot being the favourite one for as- 



96 

sembling in the hours of leisure,] was in some 
danger during the American war of 1775, when 
the British possessed the country, from parties 
sent out in search of wood for firing; but the late 
general Simcoe, who had the command of the dis- 
trict where it grew, from a regard for the character 
of William Penn, and the interest which he took 
in the history connected with the tree, ordered a 
guard of British soldiers to protect it from the axe. 
This circumstance the general related to me, in 
answer to my inquiries concerning it, after his re- 
turn to England.' " 

It is a feeling, as inseparable from our natures 
as it is favourable to virtue, to hold in reverence 
every thing and place which is connected with a 
great event, and the more lengthened the line of 
perspective along which they are looked back 
upon by the eye of posterity, the more sacred the 
relics become. And hence it is that we feel an 
impatience, almost amounting to irritation, when 
we think of the holy associations connected with 
this tree and the spot where it grew being de- 
stroyed by any doubts being suggested of its hav- 
ing been the actual spot on which the treaty was 
made. Such doubts have however been started, 
and as every thing calculated to remove them, and 
to confirm the belief that tradition has been faith- 
ful to her trust, cannot fail to be interesting, we 
shall avail ourselves of the information collected 



97 

by an active member of the Historical Society on 
the subject, and give a number of letters from per- 
sons whose recollections carry them back to con- 
temporary witnesses, which appear to us to set the 
subject at rest. 

"My Respected Friend, 

" After asking thy excuse for so long delay- 
ing to answer thy letter of the 5th inst. and which 
was partly occasioned by my desire to furnish thee 
from the papers in our possession with some evi- 
dence that the original treaty was held at Shacka- 
maxon, under the shade of the venerated elm, 
which I have no doubt was really the case, not- 
withstanding that I have not been able to find the 
casual mention of the circumstance in our papers, 
for it would probably have only been casual, 
James Logan not attending the Proprietor until 
his second voyage hither. The family of Penn in 
England could, I should suppose, furnish proof of 
the place where this transaction so honourable to 
their illustrious ancestor was held, together with 
many other particulars highly gratifying to those 
who delight to look back upon the infancy of our 
state, — for I have no doubt but that they possess 
a very great mass of information on every subject 
connected with the establishment of the colony. 

** I never could account for the propensity of 
some to unsettle every received opinion, either 
9* 



98 

on subjects which though speculative are of the 
highest importance to the comfort as well as to 
the well-being of every individual and to society, 
or on those minor topics which, like the present 
instance, have afforded so much innocent satisfac- 
tion in consecrating, as it were, a local spot sacred 
to the recollection of the dignity of moral virtue. 
But in the present instance I believe they have no- 
thing on which to found their opinion that the first 
treaty was held at Chester: My honoured mother 
was born near to that town and passed the first 
part of her life there, was well acquainted with its 
oldest inhabitants, some of whom had been con- 
temporaries of William Penn, and I may add, was 
well qualified from her inquiring mind and excel- 
lent memory to have known such a tradition, had 
it existed ; which she would have treasured up 
and often mentioned, with that of the proprietor's 
residence at Robert Wade's during his first visit. 
The dwelling which was thus honoured was called 
Essex House, and stood on the other side of 
Chester Creek, its very ruins have long disappear- 
ed : only two or three pine trees mark the spot, and 
I have formerly seen a ball and vane which had be- 
longed to the old building and had been preserv- 
ed by some of the descendants of Robert Wade, 
who (I have heard) were enjoined by the will of 
some of the family to do so, in a hope of the man- 
sion's being rebuilt, when they were to be again re- 
placed on its turret. 



99 

" I hope, my kind friend, thee will excuse the ir- 
relativeness of the above to thy question respect- 
ing the scene of the treaty, which had it been at 
Upland, (now Chester) I think there is no doubt 
but it would have furnished an cirticle in the Swe- 
dish records. We were once in possession of 
a book of the records of the courts held under 
their government prior to the arrival of William 
Penn, which, (if I remember aright) my dear Dr 
Logan gave into the hands of the late Samuel 
White, Esq. of Delaware, to place in the archives 
of that state. 

" I am with great respect, 

thy affectionate friend, 

"D. LOGAN. 
" Stenton, 29th 5th mo. 1825. 
*♦ Roberts Vaux, Esq." 



" Philadelphia, 19th May, 1825. 

'' Dear Sir, 

" The Swedish writings mention the treaty 
of Penn with the Indians, and their great respect 
for him; but nothing as to the locality. Circum- 
stances make it highly probable that it was held at 
(now) Philadelphia, as being pretty far into the 
country, and, by its site, destined for a capital. 
The first assembly being held at Chester is not an 
argument for its having been there, because In- 



100 

dian concerns could not have been objects previ- 
ous to many inquiries about them. 

"If a monument is to be erected, Philadelphia 
is, undoubtedly, the proper place. 

" Your respectful servant and friend, 
"NICHOL. COLLIN. 
" Roberts Vaux, Es^." 



^'Belmont, September 6th, 1825. 

" My Dear Sir, 

" At your request, but with much diffidence 
as to the subject you mentioned, to wit: — the 
place of holding the first grand treaty with the In- 
dians by William Penn ; I can only say that, from 
early youth to this day, I have always understood 
and believe, that the treaty in 1682 was held at 
Shackamaxon, now Kensington. When a boy, I 
have resorted to the great elm tree opposite the 
house in which President Palmer resided, in olden 
times ; and have always confided in the then un- 
contradicted tradition, that under that tree the 
treaty was held. The place had been an Indian 
village ; but one less in importance than a settle- 
ment opposite thereto, at now Cooper's point, in 
New Jersey ; where a very large village or town 
had been. Indian graves, arrows, stone axes, or- 
namental trinkets, cooking vessels, and every indi- 



101 

cation of Indian residence, were found on both 
sides of the Delaware ; but on the eastern side, in 
the greatest plenty. I never heard at that time of 
day, nor since, that the fact was disputed, until 
you now inform me that doubts exist on the sub- 
ject. 

*' I can only relate my early impressions ; which 
were those of my contemporaries. I had the most 
authentic opportunities of knowing Indian history, 
and the transactions between the proprietaries of 
Pennsylvania and the Indians ; my uncle, Richard 
Peters, having been during, I believe, thirty-five 
or forty years, the secretary of the province, and 
the confidential agent of the proprietaries. I was 
much acquainted with his official duties; and had 
access to the office papers. He had the chief con- 
cern in the Indian department, and I have no 
doubt but that I could have put any question re- 
lative to treaties, or other Indian affairs, at rest 
in my early life. But now I can only recall past 
impressions ; and those, as to the point in ques- 
tion, have uniformly been as I have stated. 

" William Penn was one of uncommon forecast 
and prudence in temporal concerns. You will 
see in his Biography, page 121, Vol. I. that he had 
the precaution in the 8th month, 1681, (in the fall 
of which year he arrived in the Delaware) to write, 
from London, a most friendly and impressive let- 



102 

ter to the Indians; calculated to prepare the way 
for his arrival among them in his province. No 
doubt, and I think I remember the early impres- 
sion I had, that he pursued such cautionary mea- 
sures on his first coming into Pennsylvania. You 
will see in the same book, in Vol. 11.^ that he gives 
a minute account to his friends in England of the 
Indians in 1683 ; and says that he had made him- 
self master of their language ; so as not to need an i 
interpreter. This shews a familiar and frequentt 
intercourse with them. I was pleased, in the same; 
letter, to see that our wise predecessors used oxen, , 
and not horses, in their ploughs. I wish the pre-- 
sent race of farmers were equally and generally 
as wise and economical. The crops were them 
more abundant than in our days. From one bushel! 
of barley sown, they reaped forty, often fifty — andl 
sometimes sixty. Three pecks of wheat sowed am 
acre. All this is, to the point in hand, but in fk- 
vourite interlude. He gives also an account off 
the native grapes, which he eulogizes ; and an--i 
nounces his intention to establish a vineyard*.! 
Peaches were in great plenty among the natives ; ; 
and very good. 

" He gives an account of the Dutch and Swe- 
dish settlers, between whom there was much jea- 
lousy. It is well known that both of these settler^g 

• Penn's Works, in 2 vols, printed in 1726. 



103 

established forts, for their defence against the na- 
tives, and probably to overawe each other. The 
Dutch deemed the Swedes and Finns intruders. 
The first inhabited the lands on the bay ; and the 
Swedes ^' the freshes of the river Delaware," as 
high as Wicacoa, within half a mile of Philadel- 
phia. 

*' It appears that the seat of his government was 
; first established at Upland, or Chester ; where se- 
j veral of his letters are dated. Now I have always 
t understood that Talks with the Indians, prepara- 
■ tory to a final arrangement by a conclusive treaty, 
; were held at Upland or Chester. But it is almost 
1 indisputably probable, if general tradition did not 
I confirm the fact, that William Penn chose to hold 
! this treaty beyond the reach of any jealousy about 
j the neighbourhood of fortified places, and within 
I the lines of his province, far from such places ; 
* and at a spot which had been an Indian settlement, 
familiar to, and esteemed by, the natives; and 
where neither Swedes nor Dutch could be sup- 
posed to have influence ; for with them the In- 
! dians had bickerings. This view of the subject 
I gives the strongest confirmation to the tradition of 
I the treaty being held at Kensington ; and the treCt 
\ so much hallowed, afforded its shade to the par- 
ties in that important transaction. The prudent 
and necessary conferences or talks, preparatory to 
the treaty, if any vestiges of them now remain, 



104 

may have given the idea that the treaty was held 
at Upland. 

" The name and character of William Penn, 
denominated by the Indians Onas, was held in ve- 
neration, through a long period, by those who had 
opportunities of knowing the integrity of his deal- 
ings and intercourse, especially by the Six JVa- 
tions, who considered themselves the masters of 
all the nations and tribes with whom he had deal- 
ings in his time, and his successors thereafter who 
adhered to the policy and justice practised by 
him. At Fort Stanioix, fifty-seven years ago, I 
was present when the Delaivares and Shawanese 
were released by the Iroquois or Six JYations, (ori- 
ginally ^ve,) from the subordination in which they 
had been held from the time of their having been 
conquered. The ceremony was called " taking 
off the petticoat,''^ and was a curious spectacle. 
When I was adopted into the family of a Tusca- 
rora chief, at the time of the Treaty of Fort Stan- 
wix, he made to me a speech, in the style used on 
such occasions ; in which he assured me of his af- 
fection ; and added, that he was pleased with my j 
being " one of the young people of the country of\ 
the much respected and highly esteemed OnaSf*^ 
which means a quill or pen. He gave to me one 
of his names — Tegochtias. He Jiad been a cele- 
brated warrior, and had distinguished himself on 
expeditions, toilsome and dangerous, against the 



105 

Southern Indians. The feathers and desiccated or 
preserved birds, called by the Indians Tegochtias, 
i. e. Paroquets, were brouglit home by the war 
parties as Trophies. The feathers decorated the 
Moccasins (whereof I had a pair presented to me,) 
mixed with porcupine's quills in beautifully orna- 
mented workmanship. If there be any thing in 
my Indian name of Paroquet ludicrous in our es- 
timation, I shall not be ashamed of it, when the 
great and good Penn was denominated, not a 
whole bird, but merely a quill. My moccasins 
cost me an expensive return in a present the ce- 
remony required ; but I considered the singular 
honour conferred on me richly deserving remune- 
ration ; though, in fact, I was more diverted than 
proud in the enjoyment of the amusing and curi- 
ous scene, and had no doubt but that this expect- 
ed remuneration was an ingredient in the motive 
leading to my adoption. jMy nation is reduced, 
as is all that confederacy, to a mere squad — if not 
entirely annihilated; though at that time it (the 
confederacy) could bring 3000 warriors into the 
field. One race of men seems destined to extin- 
guish another; and, if so, the whites have amply 
fulfilled their destiny. I wish, however, that the 
present treaty makers had the bust of William 
Penn, made from the elm tree, with a scroll super- 
scribed " Penn's Exemplary Treaty,^^ constantly 
before their eyes. It would be as monitory on this 
part of their duty as the portrait of Washington 
10 



106 

is exciting in all others. The remaining aborigines 
of our country are doomed, sooner or later, to the 
like extinction their departed predecessors have 
experienced. If, in any instance, they seem to be 
stationary ; begin to establish farms, and exercise 
civilized occupations; they must be removed, (to 
accommodate an intruding white population,) to 
the wilderness ; and recover their former habits. 
But I see William Penn adopts the idea that they 
are of^ Jewish origin. And, if they are of Israel- 
itish descent, it is in the decrees of providence, 
that, like all other Jews, they must be homeless 
wanderers ; dispersed throughout all the regions 
of the earth. Even now, in our day, a portion of 
these copper coloured Ishmaelites, if so they be, 
are to be compelled to wander far away, and leave 
their cultivated homes, to satisfy the sordid cupi- 
dity of speculating land jobbers. But if their fate 
be, in the immutable decrees of heaven, so deter- 
mined, unworthy executioners often consummate 
judgments. 

"Very sincerely yours, 

" RICHARD PETERS. 
*' Roberts Vaux, Esq.." 



''Belmont, JVovember 3, 1825. 

" My Dear Sir, 

" I met my old friend David H. Conyng- 
ham a day or two ago. We fell into conversa- 



107 

tion on olden times, and, among other reminis- 
cences, the elm tree at Kensington was discussed. 
Both of us remembered our boyish amusements, 
and, among them, our bathing at the three stores 
and on a sandy beach near the famous elm. It 
stood then majestically on a high and clean bank, 
with a fine area around it ; but, in a later period, 
the bank has been washed away. His recollec- 
tions and mine (earlier than his by a few years) 
go back between sixty and seventy years. No 
person then disputed the fact, that this elm was 
the tree under which Penn's treaty was held. 
But Mr Conyngham remembers distinctly the fre- 
quent visitations of Benjamin Lay^ to the scene 
of our sports. He was, as you know, eccentric and 
singular; but not deficient in understanding and 
chronicling all remarkable events. He must have 
known some of the contemporaries of William 
Penn. After dilating on the worth and virtues of 
that good man, and particularly as they applied 
to his treatment of the natives ; he would call on 

• *' Benjamin Lay came to Pennsylvania in 1731, at the age of 54 
years, less than fifty years after Penn's treaty in 1682, and was no 
doubt personally acquainted with individuals who knew the fact of 
the locality of that transaction. Lay's benevolent character and pur- 
suits were such, as to render the tree, and the interesting event con- 
nected with it, peculiarly gratifying to him ; and as it was his con- 
stant practice to cultivate and cherish in the minds of young persons 
a love of truth, of justice, and of good will to men, by familiar and 
forcible illustrations, I place great confidence in the accuracy of his 
knowledge in this respect. R. V. 



108 

the boys ; point to the elm tree ; and enjoin them 
to bear in mind, and tell it to their children, that 
under that tree Penn's treaty was held ; and they 
should respect it accordingly. 

" Yours very sincerely, 

" RICHARD PETERS. 
" Roberts Vaux, Esq.." 

But even the evidence of these letters, satisfac- 
tory as it is, appears less decisive than that of the 
great West, who in painting his historical picture 
of the treaty cannot be supposed to have allowed 
himself any liberty that was not sanctioned by 
fact ; and as his grandfather was one of the friends 
who attended William Penn on the occasion, we 
are sure that he had high authority to rest upon. 
We rejoice therefore that the evidence has been 
considered sufficiently satisfactory to the gentle- 
men of the Penn Society to induce them to erect 
on the spot a neat marble monument, the unosten- 
tatious simplicity of which is emblematic of the 
deed that it is meant to commemorate. 

Of the treaty from which this spot derives its ho- 
nour, many writers, of different nations and of diffe- 
rent religions and political opinions, have spoken in 
the highest terms of praise that were ever bestowed 
upon any thing of the kind before or since. Vol- 
taire says, " This was the only treaty between 



109 

those people and the Christians that was not ra- 
tified by an oath, and that was never broken." 
" William Penn thought it right," remarks the 
Abbe Raynal, *' to obtain an additional right by 
a fair and open purchase from the aborigines ; and 
thus he signalized his arrival by an act of equity 
which made his person and principles equally be- 
loved. — Here it is the mind rests with pleasure 
upon modern history, and feels some kind of com- 
pensation for the disgust, melancholy, and horror, 
which the whole of it, but particularly that of the 
European settlements in America, inspires." 

'' Being now returned," says Robert Proud, in 
his History of Pennsylvania, " from Maryland to 
Coaquannoc, he purchased lands of the Indians, 
whom he treated with great justice and sincere 
kindness. — It was at this time that he first en- 
tered personally into that friendship with them, 
which ever afterwards continued between them, 
and which for the space of more than seventy 
years was never interrupted, or so long as the 
Quakers retained power in the government. His 
conduct in general to these people was so engag- 
ing, his justice in particular so conspicuous, and 
the counsel and advice which he gave them were 
so evidently for their advantage, that he became 
thereby very much endeared to them, and the sense 
thereof made such deep impressions on their un- 
derstandings, that his name and memory will 
10* 



110 

scarcely ever be effaced while they continue a 
people." 

Colonies of Dutch and Swedes, to the number 
of between two and three thousand, had previously 
occupied the territory of which William Penn 
had now become the proprietor ; and these, toge- 
ther with the English who had come over with his 
commissioners the preceding year, received him 
with every demonstration of joy. The day after 
his arrival he called them together in the court 
house belonging to the Dutch, and explaining to 
them his object in coming over, gave them every 
assurance of his kindness and good will, and of his 
determination to continue to them their rights, 
both civil and religious. It would neither come 
within the limits, nor agree with the object of this 
work, to enter into the particular arrangements 
which he made for the government of the pro- 
vince ; but we will avail ourselves of the permis- 
sion which has been kindly given to us by one 
to whom we owe many obligations, to make a few 
extracts from a manuscript containing a History of 
Pennsylvania^ from its earliest period, and which 
gives an interesting account of the peaceable man- 
ner in which it was first founded, and the promp- 

* This history is a translation from the German by P. S. Du Pon- 
ceau, Esq. who we hope will be induced to publish it, as it appears 
to be simple, concise, and perspicuous. 



Ill 

titude of action which always marked the charac- 
ter of its lawgiver. 

" The first colonial assembly," says the histo- 
rian, "was called to carry into execution the plan 
of government agreed upon in England; yet a 
notable alteration therein took place at the very 
beginning. The freemen of the colony were sum- 
moned to appear in person, but instead of this they 
chose twelve men for each of the counties into 
whFch Penn had divided the country, consequently 
only so many as were necessary according to that 
plan to constitute one of the branches of the legis- 
lature. Nothing else could be done than to admit 
the apology that the freemen made, founded on 
the smallness of their numbers, on their agricul- 
tural avocations, and their want of experience in 
matters of government. 

" Penn had himself recognized the principle, 
that there must be a people before there is a go- 
vernment, and that the people must be free and 
united, that their government may be durable ; 
he therefore was not displeased to see the change 
which took place in the number of the representa- 
tives. The Assembly also unanimously agreed 
that each county should send in future three mem- 
bers to the council and six to the assembly. All 
the other business was transacted with the same 
unanimity ; and the assembly separated after a ses- 



112 

sion of three days, in which the most cordial 
harmony prevailed. In that short period they 
not only granted the request of the lower coun- 
ties which had desired to be united to the prov- 
ince, extended the rights of citizenship to all 
the inhabitants, and provided an easy mode for 
the naturalization of foreigners that might here- 
after migrate into the country; but they discussed 
a code of laws for the province, and after mak- 
ing a few amendments finally enacted it." 

Again the same writer says — " The spirit of or- 
der, industry, and economy, by which Pennsylva- 
nia always so nobly distinguished herself before 
the other colonies, was produced by her early 
laws. It succeeded beyond all the expectations 
of the founder. In the first year nearly thirty ships 
arrived with emigrants from England and Wales, 
who settled themselves along the Delaware up to 
the lower falls*. They were mostly Quakers, who 
were not only induced to migrate by the respect 
which they bore to William Penn's character ; 
but also by the oppression to which they continued 
to be subject in England, where they were con- 
stantly vexed by the ecclesiastical courts in conse- 
quence of their refusing to pay tithes and other 
church dues. They were soon followed by some 
Irishmen and Hollanders, and by the first German 

* The Falls of Trenton. 



113 

emigrants, quakers from Griesheim in the Palati- 
nate, who formed German Town. 

*' The first settlers had considerable difficulties 
to encounter, because they had to learn by expe- 
rience the best and most convenient manner of set- 
tling a wilderness ; and many felt the want of pro- 
visions, from which they were not seldom relieved 
by the humanity of the Indians. The want of 
t horses at this early period was found a very great 
I hardship. The christian resignation and courage 
I of these pious adventurers, and the hope of raising 
I to the Lord a free and holy people, enabled them 
j to surmount every obstacle. Penn wrote to his 
I friends in England a circumstantial account of the 
' situation of his province, which indeed shewed 
i only the fair side, and that in the clearest light. 
It produced the desired effect : but the hopes 
which he entertained of introducing the culture of 
the vine into Pennsylvania by means of French 
vine dressers, and also glass and linen manufac- 
tories, and the whale fishery, were not realized. 

" Hitherto the province had been considered as 

a numerous family under the guidance of a beloved 

I father, and indeed William Penn deserved this 

I name as well for the moderate use which he made 

! of his prerogatives as for the paternal care with 

which he pursued every object that tended to the 

benefit of those who were subject to his govern- 



114 

ment, which was particularly shewn in the founda- 
tion of the city of Philadelphia." 

In the planning of this city, which William 
Penn, with a prophetic voice, always^denominated 
the Great City, he evinced that judgment, fore- 
thought, and methodical arrangement, which form- 
ed so conspicuous a part of his character, and its 
unprecedented increase and present opulence and 
beauty will stand as monuments to future ages of 
the wisdom of the great mind by which it was plan- 
ned. It was not long before the population of 
the colony was increased by the arrival of so great 
a number of emigrants from England that there 
might perhaps have been some danger of their 
suffering considerable inconvenience for want of 
provisions, had it not been for the kind attention 
of the Indians, who, considering them as the chil- 
dren of Onas, were ready to hunt for them or do 
any thing in their power to assist them. It may 
easily be supposed, however, that even with the 
best aid that could be procured, there must yet 
have been many difficulties to be encountered by 
people who had hitherto been accustomed to all 
the comforts and luxuries of Europe, and were 
now removed to a wilderness where the hand of 
cultivation had never yet appeared. It may also 
be very readily imagined, that he who undertook 
to be the leader of this body of adventurers and to 
organize them into a regular society must have had 



115 

many trials to undergo, and many occasions on 
which it was necessary both to bear and forbear. 
Yet though far from being insensible to them, and 
at all times expressing his feelings and sentiments 
with manly firmness, he at the same time posses- 
sed that governing principle of religion which led 
him to meet every trial with a meek and becoming 
spirit. Thus we find him, about this time, ex- 
pressing himself in the following manner in a let- 
ter to a friend : 

'* I bless the Lord I am very well, and much sa- 
tisfied with my place and portion; yet busy 
enough, having much to do to please all, and yet 
to have an eye to those that are not here to please 
themselves. 

"I have been at New York, Long Island, East 
Jersey, and Maryland, in which I have had good 
and eminent service for the Lord. 

" I am now casting the country into townships 
for large lots of land. I have held an assembly, 
in which many good laws are passed. We could 
not stay safely till the spring for a government. 
I have annexed the territories lately obtained to 
the province, and passed a general naturalization 
for strangers; which hath much pleased the peo- 
ple. — As to outward things, we are satisfied ; the 
land good, the air clear and sweet, the springs 



I 



116 

plentiful, and provision good and easy to come at; 
an innumerable quantity of wild fowl and fish ; in 
fine, here is what an Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob 
would be well contented with ; and service enough 
for God, for the fields are here white for harvest. 
O, how sweet is the quiet of these parts, freed 
from the anxious and troublesome solicitations, 
hurries, and perplexities of woeful Europe !" 

And again to some one who appears to have 
cast some reflections upon him he says — 

*' Well ; the Lord is a God of righteous judg- 
ment. Had I indeed sought greatness, I had staid 
at home, where the difference between what I am 
here and what was offered and I could have been 
there in power and wealth, is as wide as the places 
are. — No : I came for the Lord's sake ; and there- 
fore have I stood to this day, well and diligent 
and successful, blessed be his power ! Nor shall 
I trouble myself to tell thee what I am to the peo- 
ple of this place in travails, watchings, spendings, 
and to my servants every way freely, not like a 
selfish man. I have many witnesses. To con- 
clude : It is now in Friends' hands. Through my 
travail, faith, and patience, it came. If Friends 
here keep to God in the justice, mercy, equity, 
and fear of the Lord, their enemies will be their 
footstool: if not, their heirs, and my heirs too, will 
lose all, and desolation will follow. But, blessed 



117 

be the Lord, we are well, and live in the dear 
love of God, and the fellowship of his tender hea- 
venly Spirit; and our faith is for ourselves and one 
another, that the Lord will be with us a King and 
Counsellor for ever. 

"Thy ancient though grieved friend, 

"William Penn." 

There is a letter addressed to Lord North, writ- 
* ten a short time after this, which has been recently 
printed by the Historical Society from the origi- 
nal in their possession, giving some account of 
the state of the colony at that time, which cannot 
fail to be interesting : — 

" My Noble Friend, 

" It hath been sometimes a question with 
me whether writing or silence would be more ex- 
cusable, for it is an unhappiness incident of great 
men to be troubled with the prospects of those 
their power and goodness oblige; but because I 
had rather want excuse for this freedom than be 
wanting of gratitude to my benefactor, I deter- 
mined to render my most humble thanks for the 
many favours I received at the Lord North's hand, 
in the passing and great despatch of my patent. 
I thank God I am safely arrived, and twenty-two 
sail more ; the air proveth sweet and good, the 
land fertile, and springs many and pleasant. We 

11 



118 

are one hundred and thirty miles from the main 
sea, and forty miles up the freshes. The town 
plat is a mile long and two miles deep ; on each 
side of the town runs a navigable river, the least 
as broad as the Thames at Woolwich, the other 
above a mile; about eighty houses are built, and 
I suppose above three hundred farms settled as 
contiguously as may be. We have had since last 
summer about sixty sail of great and small ship- 
ping, which we esteem a good beginning : a fair 
we have had, and weekly market, to which the 
ancient lowly inhabitants come to sell their pro- 
duce to their profit and our accommodation. I 
have also bought lands of the natives, treated 
them largely, and settled a firm and advantageous 
correspondency with them ; who are a careless, 
merry people, yet in property strict with us, though 
as kind as among themselves ; in coun- 

sel so deliberate, in speech short, grave and elo- 
quent, young and old in their several class, that I 
have never seen in Europe any thing more wise, 
cautious and dexterous ; 'tis as admirable to me as 
it may look incredible on that side of the water. 
The weather often changeth with notice and is 
constant almost in its inconstancy. Our trees are 
sassafras, Cyprus, cedar, black walnut, chesnut, 
oak black, white, red, Spanish and swamp the 
most durable; divers wild fruits, as plum, peach, 
and grape, the sorts divers. Mineral of copper 
and iron in divers places. I have only to add, 



119 

that it would please the Lord North to smile fa- 
vourably upon us, a plantation so well regulated 
for the benefit of the crown, and so improving and 
hopeful by the industry of the people, that since 
stewards used to follow such enterprizes in an- 
cient times at least encouragement and counte- 
nance might be yielded to us, whose aims shall in 
every thing be bounded with a just regard to the 
king's service; and we think we may reasonably 
hope, that, England being the market both of our 
wants and industry in great measure, there is in- 
terest as well as goodness of our side. I have 
pardon to ask for a poor present I make by the 
hands of the bearer my agent and kinsman Capt. 
Markham ; all I have to say is this; 'tis our coun- 
try produce, and that of old time offerings were 
valued by the heart that made them. I end with 
a congratulation of the honour the king hath join- 
ed to thy great merit, and my sincere and most 
affectionate wishes for thy prosperity; being one 
of those many whom thy goodness hath obliged to 
own and approve, as really I am, 

"Thy very sensible, thankful friend 

and servant to my power, 

"WM VENN. 

*^ Philadelphia, the 24th 
5th mo. July, 1G83. 

^' To THE Lord Keeper North. 



120 

The greatest interruption to the tranquillity 
of which he speaks with so much satisfaction ap- 
pears to have arisen from the conduct of his neigh- 
bour Lord Baltimore, the proprietor of Maryland, 
with respect to the boundaries of their respective 
provinces. As the chief interest that this contro- 
versy now possesses arises from the manner in 
which William Penn vindicated his own rights, 
as giving a further display of his character, we will 
avail ourselves of two more letters contained in 
in the same volume from which the last was taken, 
always preferring when it is in our power to let 
him speak for himself, as no words can give so 
good an idea of his powerful, polished, and cor- 
rect mind as his own energetic and perspicuous 
language. 

" Philadelphia, 2d of 12 mo. Feby, 1GS3. 

" My Noble Friend, 

*' It cannot be strange to a Lord of so much 
experience, that in nature all creatures seek succour 
against might; the young from their old and the 
feeble from the strong, and that the same nature, 
by reciprocal instinct, inspires the old to protect 
their young, and the strong the weak of their own 
kind. This, my noble Lord, is much of my case 
and this trouble; and to whom can I go, with more 
reason and hope than to him that hath, with so 
much honour and truth and a perpetual success, 



121 

been the kind and constant patron of my just 
cause ! Let this therefore, noble Lord, meet with 
thy usual favour; which will add to the many 
bonds I am under, as affection and gratitude to 
thy just interest and service. 

" My last to the Duke brought with it a copy of 
a demand made by the Proprietor of Maryland, 
with my answer to it, another of which I have pre- 
sumed to inclose, and pray that somebody may be 
commanded to read it at thy rising or undressing, 
as being too long for a time of business, and yet 
the matter would not admit of more contraction. 
I dare humbly hope that the king's right, that of 
his royal highness, and what their grace and fa- 
vour have made mine, against the pretensions of 
that Lord, will appear in my answer, with a more 
than ordinary force and evidence. To which I 
pray leave briefly to add, first, that the land in 
question was never demanded by him of those in 
possession, till by silence and omission forfeited; 
the lower parts of this river and bay having never 
been asked for of the Dutch for six and twenty 
years, much less reduced- if a title [9] by neglect 
in an improved country, here more, where the 
wildness of the soil rendereth it not above the six- 
tieth part to that which is laboured and improved. 
The upper part of this river, from Christina river 
to the falls, was never demanded of the Swedes 

nor Dutch neither, since they reduced it; which 
11# 



122 

is now about thirty years from when the crown of 
England took it in the 1664 as I take it, and has 
been since held jure belli ac pacis. This is not 
all; he never run his line, these fifty years that he 
hath had his grant — a default never to be placed 
to the account of the possessor, nor yet to the 
crown, for granting it to another ; non-improve- 
ment and neglect of filing bounds making the loss 
just on his side, were his pretensions otherwise 
right ; for as there is no transgression where no 
law is, so where there are no bounds set, nor pos- 
sessor found, nor any claimant appears, there can- 
not (with submission) be any title against the 
planter. Nay, it is the practice of all these parts 
of America, and was the express condition in all 
the Duke's patents to the free men planters of his 
colony, they settling and improving the premises. 
In the next place, what he seeks never was, as well 
as it is not, in his possession, consequently never 
cost him any thing to improve, nor has he lost any 
income by its being mine. To this I add that he 
doth not want it: he hath 200 miles (for two de- 
grees) upon both sides of the bravest bay in the 
world, Chesapeak, while I have but one side of an 
inferior one, and none at all, it seems, if he could 
have his will, to the ruin of (perhaps) the most 
prosperous beginnings in America. I have but 
two creeks that ships of two hundred tons can en- 
ter out of the river for harbourage; he has forty 
(and to spare) that ships of five hundred tons can 



123 

enter and ride in. And though this argument ought 
not to prevail against absolute right, yet, in a case 
circumstanced as this of mine is, I hope that pru- 
dence and proportion, together with my arguments 
of contrary right, will more than even the scale. 
-■ With God I leave it, and my noble friends : but, 
I if I am herein disappointed, it will be a ruinous 
voyage to me, having spent, in my preparations, 
■ transport and maintenance of the quality of Go- 
vernor, aye and the government too, with the ap- 
pendant charges, a vast sum more than ever I re- 
ceived; and I hope and believe the King and Duke, 
by favour of my noble friend, will never sufier me 
to fall short of the most important part of the grant 
and country, and which that Lord hath no right 
to, want of, nor loss by. And now, my noble 
friend, give me leave to value myself to the Duke 
by so acceptable a proxy as the Lord of Roches- 
ter in his affairs of New York : he must indeed re- 
member the humble advice I gave him, when in 
his closet he asked me my opinion of the selling 
of New York, what I wrote to him from hence in 
that affair, and the zeal and respect I have shewn 
in his service herein, and that not without success 
(though any one will think I did not play the cun- 
ning man in it) ; and I cannot suffer myself to be- 
lieve that a prince of his generous and steady 
temper will permit so fatal a stroke to come upon 
my honest interest, nay his own, (and that of no 



124 

small moment to New York, for it is the garrison's 
grainery,) as to let that Lord go away with the 
only river and bay I have any interest in, who, 
besides that he has no right to them, needs them 
not, never had them, and so loses nothing by 
the want of them, I humbly conceive is neither 
more able nor willing to serve the Duke there or 
here. I have done : only please to remember 
what I told the king at Windsor, who graciously 
permitted me to render him my thanks and take 
my leave of him, to wit, that if ever any unhappy 
occasion came to try the truth of the assurance I 
gave the king of thequakers' unfactious and peace- 
able principles towards him and his government, 
my life and estate on it they w^ould not derogate 
from my character ; that if I could lie to any I 
would not choose to do it to him, whose goodness 
had not only obliged me but also put me more 
within his power to be even with me. This, it 
seems, isi)ut too soon confirmed by the madness 
and folly of some evil and restless men. God de- 
fend these kingdoms from blood and misery, and 
send us peace in our days; which I humbly wish 
my noble friend to think upon in behalf of my 
peaceable friends, lest men, even disinterested, 
that look on, should say with too much truth that 
in England, in times of danger, there is no odds 
in being innocent. I shall add no more but my 
best wishes, and that I am with much zeal and 



125 

affection, my noble friend, thy most obliged and 
faithful friend, 

" WM PENN. 

'' If I may, please to give my most humble duty 
to the King and Duke. 

" For the Earl of Rochester^." 



'' My Noble Friend, 

" It is an unhappiness small folks are ex- 
posed to, that the discharge of their duty is an in- 
crease of their debt. I am one of those, who am 
obliged to this acknowledgment, and yet the free- 
dom of making it needs an apology; but I take 
comfort in this, that I have to do with a very mer- 
ciful creditor, one that is as easy to forgive as 
ready to oblige; which is all the defence I shall 
make for myself in the liberty I take. I hope my 
agent hath presented thee with my last and the 
respects I bear so honourable a friend. I did in 
that give some account of our condition here, 
which (thanks be to God) mends upon us. Our 

* It is light to mention that this nobleman was not the Lord Ro- 
chester who was the favourite companion of Charles the Second, 
since the courteous manner in which William Penn addresses 
himself to this nobleman would give a very unfavourable impression 
of his character, were it supposed to have been used to one so u%- 
worthy of respect as was the dissolute companion of that dissolute 
monarch. 



126 

capital town is advanced to about 150 very tole- 
rable houses for wooden ones ; they are chiefly on 
both the navigable rivers that bound the ends or 
sides of the town. The farmers have got their 
winter corn in the ground. I suppose we may be 
500 farmers strong. I settle them in villages, di- 
viding five thousand acres among ten, fifteen or 
twenty families, as their ability is to plant it. Ger- 
mans, Dutch and French are concerned in our 
prosperity with their own ; for here are come three 
parties (one of each) as spies to the multitude, 
they say, behind, that on their report will also em- 
bark with us. The Germans are fallen upon flax 
and hemp, the French on vineyards. Here grow 
wild an incredible number of vines, that though 
savage and so not so excellent, beside that much 
wood and shade sour them, they yield a pleasant 
grape, and I have drank a good claret, though 
small and greenish, of Capt. Rappe's vintage of 
the savage grape. The only interruption I meet 
with is from the unkindness of my neighbour pro- 
prietor the Lord Baltimore, who not only refuseth 
compliance to the king's commands, and the grant 
he and the duke have graciously made me, but 
as impatient of the decision of our joint sovereign, 
would anticipate that by indirect ways of his own, 
who, to say true, by the course of his aftairs, 
jiields him as little regard as ever he can; he tak- 
eth himself to be a prince, that, even to his fellow 
subject and brother proprietor, can of right deter- 



127 

mine differences by force, and we have been 
threatened with troops of horse (which are fine 
things to the wood) to reduce those parts in my 
possession to his power and greatness, aye though 
king and duke had them quietly before, and so 
were pleased to deliver them to me. And till I 
had preached another doctrine to him, as that the 
king was lord chief justice and high sheriff of 
America, that he finally must judge, eject and give 
possession, he refused to go with me to king and 
counsel ; saying he had nothing to do with king 
and counsel, but would take his right where he 
could get it. He also told me, my patent had a 
proviso and exception of appeals, but his had not. 
I told him, that omission was not a privilege but 
a prejudice in my opinion ; however sovereignty 
was reserved I was sure, and, if the king was not 
appealable from Maryland, he was not sovereign 
of Maryland, but the Lord Baltimore. This soft- 
ened him a little to his duty, and now he pre- 
tends to refer, as do I, with an entire submission. 
My case I send as an answer to his demand ; to 
which I only pray leave to add, that he never was 
in possession, and he consequently loses nothing 
by the want of it that he never had. Further, he 
never claimed it, not of the Dutch for twenty-six 
years after his grant, nor of the Swedes for seven 
and forty years, the one having the upper part of 
the river, the other, to wit the Dutch, the lower 
and all the bay : which in an improved country is 



128 

a forfeiture by omission and neglect ; more it must 
be in a wild place, where the land is not the six- 
tieth part to the labour. To this 1 add, he never 
run his line, nor fixed his bounds ; and with sub- 
mission, where there are no boundaries, possess- 
ors, nor claimant, but long unquestioned possess- 
ion on another side, there can be no title pleadable 
against the planter ; the maxim of the civil law 
■ holding good in this cose, Quo3 nullius sunt in 
/'bonis dantur occupanti. But this is not all; he; 
needs it not; I do ; without it I have nothing, and I 
without it, he hath forty brave harbours, having ; 
200 miles for two degrees of the bravest bay in the • 
world, Chesapeak, and that on both sides, replen- 
ished with many stately rivers and coves for the ; 
biggest ships. I have two that ships of two hun- 
dred tons perhaps may enter out of the river ; in 
the bay, none, but for small craft; and where 
right is, to be sure prudence and proportion will I 
more than even the scale. I must (without vanity ' 
I can) say, I have led the greatest colony into » 
America that ever any man did upon a private ' 
credit, and the most prosperous beginnings thatl 
ever were in it are to be found among us; and ifl 
this lord (who may remember that his country was 
cut out of Virginia, to the great abatement of the 
interest of that province, and this not for debt, or 
salaries due, but as mere grace) shall carry away 
this poor ewe lamb too, my voyage will be a rui- 
nous one to me and my partners, which God de- 



129 

fend. And, my honourable friend, I shall only 
pray that my case may be remembered and recom- 
mended to the king by my noble friend the mar- 
quis of Halifax. I am not to be blamed for this 
liberty, when it shall be considered how great a 
place his wit, honour and abilities have with the 
king, and how much, and with what success, he 
hath acted the friend to my poor concerns. I 
hope the innocency of our friends at this juncture 
hath not dishonoured the lord of Halifax's former 
favours to them; as I take confidence to believe, 
that the innocency of men shall protect them in 
England with their superiors in evil times, else the 
odds would be little in being such. I say no 
more, but pray God to reward all thy favours to 
them and me, and to give me leave to value my- 
self upon the character of 

"My Noble Friend, 

"Thy very affect, cordial 

friend to serve thee, 

"W. P. 

" Philadelphia, the 9th of the 
Uth month, 1683. 

" To THE Marquis of Halifax." 

But amidst his useful and various avocations, 

William Penn received accounts from England 

which gave him great concern. It appeared that 

the persecutions against the Dissenters, and parti- 

12 



130 

cularly the Quakers, were still carried on with great 
violence. Many particular instances coming to 
his knowledge in which that peaceable sect had 
undergone fines and imprisonment on account of 
their religion, he at length determined to return to 
England, and endeavour, by his own personal in- 
terest, to improve their condition. 

Before this could be done, however, there were 
many arrangements to be made in his infant set- 
tlement, which he immediately commenced with 
great diligence. That which he had most at heart 
was to improve, to the utmost of his power, the 
acquaintance and good-will of the Indians, as well 
as to forward their civilization and improvement. 
For these purposes he held frequent conferences 
Vvith them, so that we find before the time of his 
departure he had entered into treaties of amity with 
nineteen different tribes. Such was his anxiety for 
the good of these poor people, and with such ear- 
nestness did he pursue it, that we are told by one 
of his biographers, "he laid out several thou- 
sand pounds to instruct, support, and oblige them." 
His reward was such as must have been most gra- 
tifying to his benevolent heart — that of love and 
confidence to him and his successors, which was 
handed down from generation to generation. 

His next care was to forward, as much as pos- 
sible, the buildings which were to form the city, 



131 

as well as to appoint the necessary officers, and in- 
vest them with proper authority for the government 
of public affairs during his absence. He then 
set sail for England, and, after a favourable pas- 
age, landed October 1684 within seven miles of 
his own house, and had the happiness of finding 
his wife and children in perfect health and com- 
fort. He lost no time after his arrival before he 
set about accomplishing the chief object of his re- 
turn, and had even obtained a promise from the 
King to do something for the people for whom he 
pleaded ; but the death of Charles the Second soon 
after rendered his endeavours abortive. 

James the Second, whilst Duke of York, having 
promised Admiral Penn to be a friend and protec- 
tor to his son, a considerable degree of intimacy 
had grown up between them, which William Penn 
now thought it desirable to cultivate as much as 
possible. For this purpose, he took lodgings for 
himself and family at Kensington, where he wasdis- 
tinguished by his Majesty as a favourite friend and 
counsellor. The influence he possessed, however, 
he exerted almost entirely for the benefit of those 
who suffered on account of religion ; and one 
of his first applications was in favour of the ven- 
erable John Locke, who had been deprived, by the 
command of the late King, of his place as student 
of Christ-Church, Oxford, with all its rights and 
benefits, on account of his opposition to Popery and 



132 

and arbitrary power. His application was so far 
successful, that the King empowered William 
Penn to inform Locke, who was then in Holland, 
that he might return to England, and should be 
pardoned. That great man, however, declined to 
accept the offer, considering that to receive a par- 
don would be to acknowledge himself guilty. 

Perhaps few situations can be more trying to any 
man's honour and integrity, than that of basking in 
the sunshine of royal favour ; and it is most grati- 
fying to see how well William Penn bore the test 
of its fiery ordeal. A passage from Gerard Croese 
proves the strength of his mind on such an occa- 
sion : — 

" William Penn was greatly in favour with the 
King, the Quakers' sole patron at Court, on whom 
the hateful eyes of his enemies were intent. The 
King loved him as a singular and entire friend, and 
imparted to him many of his secrets and counsels. 
He often honoured him with his company in pri- 
vate, discoursing with him of various affairs, and 
that not for one but many hours together, and de- 
laying to hear the best of his peers who at the same 
time were waiting for an audience. One of these 
being envious, and impatient of delay, and taking 
it as an affront to see the other more regarded than 
himself, adventured to take the freedom to tell his 
majesty, that when he met with Penn he thought 



133 

little of his nobility. The king made no other 
reply, than thatPENN always talked ingeniously^ 
and he heai^d him willingly. Penn, being so highly 
favoured, acquired thereby a number of friends. 
Those also who formerly knew him, when they had 
any favour to ask at Court, came to, courted, and 
entreated Penn to promote their several requests. 
Penn refused none of his friends any reasonable 
office he could do for them ; but v/as ready to 
serve them all, but more especially the Quakers, 
and these wherever their religion was concerned. 
It is usually thought, when you do me one favour 
readily, you thereby encourage me to expect a se- 
cond. Thus they ran to Penn without intermis- 
sion, as their only pillar and support, who always 
caressed and received them cheerfully, and effected 
their business by his interest and eloquence. 
Hence his house and gates were daily thronged by 
a numerous train of clients and suppliants desiring 
him to present their addresses to his majesty. 
There were sometimes there two hundred and 
more. When the carrying on these affairs re- 
quired money for writings, such as drawing things 
out into form and copyings, and for fees and other 
charges which are usually made on such occasions, 
Penn so discreetly managed matters, that out of 
his own, which he had in abundance, he liberally 
discharged many emergent expenses." 

As often happens however to those who labour 
12# 



134 

for the good of others, his returns were far from 
being such as he deserved. The well known 
attachment of James the Second to the Catholic 
religion, and the marks of favour which William 
Penn received from him, threw a suspicion on that 
excellent man of being secretly a friend to that 
cause to which his patron was* known to be so 
much devoted. This suspicion gave great alarm 
to the Protestants, who were very naturally appre- 
hensive of a renewal of the persecutions from 
which in former reigns they had suffered so much j 
and knowing the great intimacy which existed be- 
tween William Penn and the King, they soon 
adopted the opinion that he was himself a Papist, 
aud that all his influence with the King would 
consequently be exercised to strengthen the Ca- 
tholic cause. Amongst those who entertained 
this opinion and even ventured to give open ex- 
pression to it was the respectable Dr Tillotson, 
afterwards archbishop of Canterbury 5 and as the 
opinion of such a man, both on account of his high 
station, and still higher character, could not fail 
to have great weight with all who heard it, Wil- 
liam Penn thought it necessary to take some ac- 
tive measures to refute it, and therefore wrote to 
Dr Tillotson in the following terms : — 

" Being often told that Dr Tillotson should sus- 
pect me, and so report me, a Papist, I think a Jes- 
uit, and being closely prcst, I takd the liberty to ask 



135 

thee if any such reflection fell from thee. If it did, 
I am sorry one I esteemed ever the first of his robe 
should so undeservedly stain me, for so I call it; 
and if the story be false, I am sorry they should 
abuse Dr Tillotson as well as myself without a 
cause. I add no more, but that I abhor two princi- 
ples in religion, and pity those that own them. — 
The first is obedience upon aiUhority tvithoiit con- 
viction, and the other the destroying them that dif- 
fer from me for God's sake. Such a religion is 
without judgment, though not without teeth. Uni- 
on is best, if right: else charity; and, as Hooker 
said, the time will come when a few words spoken 
with meekness, humility, and love, shall be more 
acceptable than volumes of controversies, which 
commonly destroy charity, which is the very best 
part of the true religion ; I mean not a charity 
that can change with all, but bear all, as I can Dr 
Tillotson in what he dissents from me, and in this 
reflection too, if said, which is not yet believed by 
thy Christian true friend, 

" William Penn." 

To this Dr Tillotson replied : — 

*' Honoured Sir, 

" The demand of your letter is very just 
and reasonable, and the manner of it very kind ; 
therefore, in answer to it, be pleased to take the 
following account : 



136 

" The last time you did me the favour to see me 
at my house, I did, according to the freedom I 
always use where I profess any friendship, ac- 
quaint you with something 1 had heard of a cor- 
respondence you held with some at Rome, and 
particularly with some of the Jesuits there. At 
which you seemed a little surprised ; and, after 
some general discourse about it, you said you 
would call on me some other time, and speak fur- 
ther of it. Since that time I never saw you, but 
by accident and in passage, where I thought you 
always declined me, particularly at Sir William 
Jones's chamber, which was the last time, I think, 
I saw you ; upon which occasion I took notice to 
him of your strangeness to me, and told what I 
thought might be the reason of it, and that I was. 
sorry for it, because I had a particular esteem of 
your parts and temper. The same, I believe, I 
have said to some others, but to whom I do not so 
particularly remember. Since your going to Penn- 
sylvania I never thought more of it, till lately be- 
ing in some company, one of them pressed me to 
declare whether I had not heard something of you 
which had satisfied me that you were a Papist'? 
I answered. No ; by no means. I told him what I 
had heard, and what I said to you, and of the 
strangeness that ensued upon it; but that this ne- 
ver went further with me than to make me suspect 
there was more in that report which I had heard 
than I was at first willing to believe j and that if 



137 

any made more of it, I should look upon them as 
very injurious both to Mr Penn and myself. 

" This is the truth of that matter; and whenever 
you will please to satisfy me that my suspicion of 
the truth of that report I had heard was ground- 
less, I will heartily beg your pardon for it. I do 
fully concur with you in the abhorrence of the 
two principles you mention, and in your approba- 
tion of that excellent saying of Mr Hooker, for 
which I shall ever highly esteem him. I have en- 
deavoured to make it one of the governing princi- 
! pies of my life, never to abate any thing of huma- 
i nity and charity to any man for his difference from 
me in opinion, and particularly to those of your 
persuasion, as several of them have had experi- 
ence. I have been ready upon all occasions to 
do them all offices of kindness, being truly sorry 
to see them so hardly used; and though I thought 
them mistaken, yet in the main I believed them to 
be very honest. I thank you for your letter, and 
have a just esteem of the Christian temper of it, 
and rest your faithful Friend, 

" Jo. TiLLOTSON." 

William Penn's liberal, independent, and man- 
ly answer cannot fail to be read with pleasure : — 

" Worthy Friend, 

" Having a much less opinion of my own 



138 

memory than ofDrTillotson's truth, I will allow the 
fact, though not the jealousy ; for, besides that I 
cannot look strange where I am well used, I have 
ever treated the name of DrTillotson with another 
regard. I might be grave, and full of my own bu- 
siness. I was also then disappointed by the Doc- 
tor's ; but my nature is not harsh, my education less, 
and my principles least of all. It was the opinion I 
have had of the Doctor's moderation, simplicity, 
and integrity, rather than his parts or posts, that al- 
ways made me set a value upon his friendship, of 
which perhaps I am better judge, leaving the latter 
to men of deeper talents. I blame him nothing, but 
leave it to his better thoughts, if, in my affair, his 
jealousy was not too nimble for his charity. If he 
can believe me, I should hardly prevail with my- 
self to endure the same thought of DrTillotson on 
the like occasion, and less to speak of it. For the 
Roman correspondence I will freely come to con- 
fession : I have not only no such thing with any 
Jesuit at Rome (though Protestants may have with- 
out offence), but I hold none with any Jesuit, 
priest, or regular in the world of that communion. 
And that the Doctor may see what a novice I am 
in that business I know not one any where. And 
yet, when all this is said, I am a Catholic, though 
not a Roman. I have bowels for mankind, and 
dare not deny others what I crave for myself, I mean 
liberty of the exercise of my religion ; thinking 
faith, piety, and providence a better security than 



139 

force and that if truth cannot prevail with her own 
weapons all others will fail her. 

" Now, though I am not obliged to this defence, 
and that it can be no temporizing now to make it; 
yet that Dr Tillotson may see how much I value 
his good opinion, and dare own tlie truth and 
myself at all turns, let him be confident I am no 
Roman Catholic, but a Christian, whose creed is 
the Scripture, of the truth of which I hold a no- 
bler evidence than the best Church authority in 
the world ; and yet I refuse not to believe the por- 
ter, though I cannot leave the sense to his discre- 
tion ; and when I should, if he offends against 
those plain methods of understanding God hath 
made us to know things by, and which are insepa- 
rable from us, I must beg his pardon, as I do the 
Doctor's, for this length, upon the assurance he 
has given me of his doing the like upon better in- 
formation ; which that he may fully have, I recom- 
mend him to my ' Address to Protestants,' from 
p. 133 to the end, and to the first four chapters 
of my ' No Cross No Crown,' to say nothing of 
our most unceremonious and unworldly way of 
worship and their pompous cult; where at this 
time I shall leave the business with all due and 
sensible acknowledgments to thy friendly temper, 
and assurance of the sincere wishes and respects 
of thy affectionate, real friend, 

" William Penn." 



140 



This letter produced so full a conviction on the 
mind of the liberal Tillotson, that he had done 
injustice to William Penn, that a very friendly 
intercourse afterwards took place between them. 
The suspicion however was still entertained by 
many others, and a letter being sent to William 
Penn, in which those opinions were expressed and 
Dr Tiilotson's name mentioned in connection with 
it, William Penn wrote the following note to his 
friend, enclosing the letter which he had re- 
ceived : — 

" Worthy Friend, 

" This should have been a visit; but being 
of opinion that Dr Tillotson is yet a debtor to me 
in this way, I chose to provoke him to another let- 
ter by this, before I made him one ; for though he 
was very just and obliging when I last saw him, 
yet certainly no expression, however kindly spo- 
ken, will so easily and effectually purge me from 
the unjust imputation some people cast upon me 
in his name, as his own letter will do. The need 
of this he will better see when he has read the in- 
closed, which coming to hand since my last, is, I 
presume, enough to justify this address, if I had 
no former pretensions. And therefore I cannot 
be so wanting to myself, as not to press him to a 
letter in my just defence, nor so uncharitable to 
him as to think he should not frankly write what 
he has said, when it is to right a man's reputation 



141 

and disabuse the too credulous world. For to me 
it seems from a private friendship to become a mo- 
ral duty to the public, which, with a person of so 
great morality, must give success to the reasona- 
ble desire of thy very real friend, 

"William Penn." 

To this Dr Tillotson gave the following satis- 
factory answer : — 

" Sir, 

"I am very sorry that the suspicion I had 
entertained concerning you, of which I gave you 
the true account in my former letter, hath occa- 
sioned so much trouble and inconvenience to you : 
and I do now declare with great joy, that I am fully 
satisfied that there was no just ground for that sus- 
picion, and therefore do heartily beg your pardon 
for it. And ever since you were pleased to give 
me that satisfaction, I have taken all occasions to 
vindicate you in this matter ; and shall be ready to 
do it to the person that sent you the inclosed, 
whenever he will please to come to me. I am 
very much in the country, but will seek the first 
opportunity to visit you at Charing Cross, and re- 
new our acquaintance, in which I took great plea- 
sure. I rest your faithful friend, 

" Jo. Tillotson." 
13 



142 

The exertions which William Penn made in 
behalf of his suffering brethren were not confined 
to those of his own peculiar denomination; but ex- 
tended to all those who suffered on account of 
their religion : nor was it long before he reaped 
the benefit of his exertions in favour of the suflfer- 
ing Christians, by the King and his council issuing 
a proclamation of pardon to those who were in 
prison on account of their consciences. He had 
no doubt aided this object in the minds of the 
council by a work which he at this time published, 
called a "Persuasive to Moderation." But it is 
probable the gradual influence of his conversations 
with the King, when this great object was always 
kept in view, had a much more powerful effect. 
The consequences of this proclamation were most 
happy to the Quakers, as it was the means of re- 
storing no less than twelve hundred conscientious 
and suffering people to their families and friends 
many of whom had been several years in confine- 
mep* 

After this happy event, William Penn resolved 
on a tour to the continent, to visit the several 
churches there. On setting out he was commis- 
sioned by the King to visit the Prince of Orange, 
at the Hague, and endeavour to gain his compli- 
ance to a general religious toleration in England, 
together with the removal of all tests, — a commis- 
sion which it may well be imagined he most joy- 



143 

fully undertook. He then visited various parts of 
the continent ; after which he returned again to 
England, further to promote, by his interest at 
court, the spread and confirmation of religious 
liberty. Indeed, so entirely was his heart engaged 
in this great cause, that he resolved to remain in 
England till it was completed, though all the ac- 
counts which he had received from America prov- 
ed that matters stood greatly in need of his pre- 
sence, support, and direction. He had reason to 
hope, however, that it would not be long before he 
saw religious toleration established as the law of 
his native land, which would enable him to return 
with much greater satisfaction and honour to the 
land of his adoption. But, unfortunately, the King, 
whilst he shewed himself anxious to procure gen- 
eral religious liberty, proved himself at the same 
time so decided a Catholic, that the people were in- 
duced to believe his only object was to favour 
the Papists, and in these suspicions William Penn 
vv^as so much involved, that many were afraid to ac- 
knowledge his acquaintance, whilst others, whose 
minds were of a more independent character, re- 
monstrated with him on the subject. Amongst the 
latter was a Mr Popple, who was intimate both with 
him and John Locke, and whose letter with Wil- 
liam Penn's answer we will give as specimens of an 
elevation of mind, and elegance of composition, far 
beyond the age in which they lived ; — 



144 

"To the Honourable William Penn, Es(^. Pro- 
prietor and Governor of Pennsylvania. 

" Honoured Sir, 

" Though the friendship with which you 
are pleased to honour me doth afford me sufficient 
opportunities of discoursing with you upon any 
subject, yet I choose rather at this time to offer 
unto you in writing some reflections which have 
occurred to my tlioughts in a matter of no com- 
mon importance. The importance of it doth pri- 
marily and directly respect yourself and your own 
private concernments ; but it also consequently 
and effectually regards the King, his government, 
and even the peace and settlement of this whole 
nation. I entreat you therefore to bear with me, 
if I endeavour in this manner to give somewhat 
more weight unto my words than would be in a 
transient discourse, and leave them with you as a 
subject that requires your retired consideration. 

" You are not ignorant that the part you have 
been supposed to have had of late years in public 
affairs, though without either the title, or honour, 
or profit, of any public office, and that especially 
your avowed endeavours to introduce among us a 
general and inviolable liberty of conscience in 
matters of mere religion, have occasioned the mis- 
takes of some men, provoked the malice of others, 
and in the end have raised against you a multitude 



145 

of enemies, who have unworthily defamed you 
with such imputations as I am sure you abhor. 
This I know you have been sufficiently informed 
of, though I doubt you have not made sufficient 
reflection upon it. The consciousness of your own 
innocence seems to me to have given you too great 
a contempt of such unjust and ill-grounded slan- 
ders ; for, however glorious it is and reasonable 
for a truly virtuous mind, whose inward peace is 
founded upon that rock of innocence, to despise 
the empty noise of popular reproach, yet even that 
sublimity of spirit may sometimes swell to a re- 
provable excess. To be steady and immovable in 
the prosecution of wise and honest resolutions, 
by all honest and prudent means, is indeed a duty 
that admits of no exception : but nevertheless it 
ought not to hinder that, at the same time, there be 
also a due care taken of preserving a fair reputa- 
tion. ' A good name,' says the Wise Man, ' is bet- 
ter than precious ointment ' It is a perfume that 
recommends the person whom it accompanies, that 
procures him every where an easy acceptance, and 
that facilitates the success of all his enterprizes : 
and for that reason, though there were no other, I 
entreat you, observe, that the care of a man's re- 
putation is an essential part of that very same duty 
that engages him in the pursuit of any worthy 
design. 

" But I must not entertain you with a declama- 
13# 



146 

tion upon this general theme. My business is to 
represent to you more particularly those very impu- 
tations which are cast upon yourself, together with 
some of their evident consequences; that, if possi- 
ble, I may thereby move you to labour after a re- 
medy. The source of all arises from the ordinary 
access you have unto the King, the credit you are 
supposed to have with him, and the deep jealousy 
that some people have conceived of his intentions in 
reference to religion. Their jealousy is, that his 
aim has been to settle Popery in this nation, not only 
in a fair and secure liberty, but even in a predomi- 
nating superiority over all other professions: and 
from hence the inference follows, that whosoever 
has any part in the councils of this reign must needs 
be popishly affected ; but that to have so great a 
part in them as you are said to have had, can hap- 
pen to none but an absolute Papist. That is the 
direct charge : but that is not enough ; your post is 
too considerable for a Papist of an ordinary form, 
and therefore you must be a Jesuit : nay, to confirm 
that suggestion, it must be accompanied with all 
the circumstances that may best give it an air of 
probability ; as, that you have been bred at St 
Omer's in the Jesuits' college; that you have taken 
orders at Rome, and there obtained a dispensation 
to marry ; and that you have since then frequently 
officiated as a priest in the celebration of the mass 
at Whitehall, St James's, and other places. And 
this being admitted, nothing can be too black to 



147 

be cast upon you. Whatsoever is thought amiss 
either in church or state, though never so con- 
trary to your advice, is boldly attributed to it; and, 
if other proofs fail, the Scripture itself must be 
brought in to confirm, 'That whosoever offends in 
one point (in a point especially so essential as that 
of our too much affected uniformity) is guilty of 
the breach of all our laws.' Thus the charge of 
Popery draws after it a tail like the et coetera oath, 
and by endless innuendos prejudicates you as guil- 
ty of whatsoever malice can invent, or folly be- 
lieve. But that charge, therefore, being removed, 
the inferences that are drawn from it will vanish, 
and your reputation will easily return to its former 
brightness. 

"Now, that I might the more effectually per- 
suade you to apply some remedy to this disease, I 
beseech you, Sir, suffer me to lay before you some 
of its pernicious consequences. It is not a trifling 
matter for a person, raised as you are above the 
common level, to lie under the prejudice of so gene- 
ral a mistake in so important a matter. The gene- 
ral and long prevalency of any opinion gives it a 
strength, especially among the vulgar, that is not 
easily shaken. And as it happens that you have also 
enemies of a higher rank, who will be ready to im- 
prove such popular mistakes by all sorts of malici- 
ous artifices, it must be taken for granted that those 
errors will be thereby still more confirmed, and 



148 

the inconveniences that may arise from thence no 
less increased. This, Sir, I assure you, is a me- 
lancholy prospect to your friends ; for we know you 
have such enemies. The design of so universal a 
liberty of conscience, as your principles have led 
you to promote, has offended many of those whose 
interest it is to cross it. I need not tell you how 
many and how powerful they are ; nor can I tell 
you either how far, or by what ways and means, 
they may endeavour to execute their revenge. But 
this, however, I must needs tell you ; that, in your 
present circumstances, there is sufficient ground 
for so much jealousy at least as ought to excite 
you to use the precaution of some public vindica- 
tion. This the tenderness of friendship prompts 
your friends to desire of you ; and this the just 
sense of your honour, which true religion does not 
extinguish, requires you to execute. 

" Pardon, I entreat you, Sir, the earnestness of 
these expressions; nay, suffer me, without offence^ 
to expostulate with you yet a little further. I am 
fearful lest these personal considerations should 
not have their due weight with you, and therefore 
I cannot omit to reflect also upon some more ge- 
neral consequences of your particular reproach. 
I have said it already, that the King, his honour, 
his government, and even the peace and settle- 
ment of this whole nation, either are or have been 
concerned in this matter : your reputation, as you 



149 

are said to have meddled in public affairs, has been 
of public concernment. The promoting a gene- 
ral liberty of conscience having been your parti- 
cular province, the aspersion of Popery and Jesuit- 
ism, that has been cast upon you, has reflected 
upon his majesty for having made use, in that 
affair, of so disguised a personage as you are sup- 
posed to have been. It has weakened the force of 
your endeavours, obstructed their effect, and con- 
tributed greatly to disappoint this poor nation of 
that inestimable happiness, and secure establish- 
ment, which I am persuaded you designed, and 
which all good and wise men agree that a just and 
inviolable liberty of conscience would infallibly 
produce. I heartily wish this consideration had 
been sooner laid to heart, and that some demon- 
strative evidence of your sincerity in the profes- 
sion you make had accompanied all your endea- 
vours for liberty. 

" But what do I say, or what do I wish for !■ I 
confess that I am now struck with astonishment at 
that abundant evidence which I know you have 
constantly given of the opposition of your princi- 
ples to those of the Romish church, and at the 
little regard there has been had to it. If an open 
profession of the directest opposition against Po- 
pery, that has ever appeared in the world since Po- 
pery was first distinguished from common Christi- 
anity, would serve the turn, this cannot be denied 



150 

to all those of that society with which you are 
joined in the duties of religious worship. If to 
have maintained the principles of that society by 
frequent and fervent discourses, by many elabo- 
rate writings, by suffering ignominy, imprison- 
ment, and other manifold disadvantages, in de- 
fence thereof, can be admitted as any proof of 
your sincere adherence thereunto ; this, it is evi- 
dent to the world, you have done already. Nay, 
further; if to have inquired, as far as was possible 
for you, into the particular stories that have been 
framed against you, and to have sought all means 
of rectifying the mistakes upon which they were 
grounded, could in any measure avail to the set- 
ting a true character of you in men's judgments, 
this also I know you have done. For I have seen 
under the hand of a reverend dean of our English 
church (Dr Tillotson) a full acknowledgment of 
satisfaction received from you in a suspicion he 
had entertained upon one of those stories, and to 
which his report had procured too much credit. 
And though I know you are averse to the pub- 
lishing of his letter without his express leave, and 
perhaps may not now think fit to ask it, yet I am 
so thoroughly assured of his sincerity and can- 
dour, that I cannot doubt but he has already vin- 
dicated you in that matter, and will (according 
to his promise) be still ready to do it upon all oc- 
casions. Nay, I have seen also your justification 
from another calumny of common fame, about your 



151 

having kidnapped one, who had been formerly a 
monk, out of your American province, to deliver 
him here into the hands of his enemies ; I say, I 
have seen your justification from that story under 
that person's own hand ; and his return to Penn- 
sylvania, where he now resides, may be an irrefra- 
gable confutation of it to any that will take the 
pains to inquire thereinto. 

"Really it afflicts me very much to consider 
that all this does not suffice. If I had not that 
particular respect for you which I sincerely pro- 
fess, yet I could not but be much affected, that 
any man, who had deservedly acquired so fair a 
reputation as you have formerly had, whose inte- 
grity and veracity had always been reputed spot- 
less, and whose charity had been continually ex- 
ercised in serving others, at the dear expense of 
his time, his strength, and his estate, without any 
other recompense than what results from the con- 
sciousness of doing good : I say I could not but 
be much affected; to see any such person fall in- 
nocently and undeservedly under such unjust re- 
proaches as you have done. It is a hard case ; 
and I think no man that has any bowels of huma- 
nity can reflect upon it without great relentings. 

*' Since therefore it is so, and that something 
remains yet to be done — something more express, 
and especially more public than has yet been 



152 

done — for your vindication ; I beg of you, dear Sir, 
by all the tender efficacy that friendship, either 
mine or that of your friends and relations together, 
can have upon you ; by the due regard which hu- 
manity, and even Christianity, obliges you to have 
to your reputation; by the duty you owe unto the 
King; by your love to the land of your nativity; 
and by the cause of universal religion, and eternal 
truth ; let not the scandal of insincerity, that I have 
hinted at, lie any longer upon you; but let the 
sense of all these obligations persuade you to gra- 
tify your friends and relations, and to serve your 
King, your country, and your religion, by such a 
public vindication of your honour, as your own 
prudence, upon these suggestions, will now shew 
you to be most necessary and most expedient. I 
am, with unfeigned and most respectful affection, 
Honoured Sir, 

" Your most humble and most 
obedient servant, 

" William Popple." 



ANSWER. 
" Worthy Friend, 

*' It is now above twenty years, I thank God, 
that I have not been very solicitous what the world 
thought of me : for since I have had the know- 
ledge of religion from a principle in myself, the 
first and main point with me has been to approve 



153 

myself in the sight of God through patience and 
well-doing : so that the world has not had weight 
enongh with me to suffer its good opinion to raise 
me, or its ill opinion to deject me. And if that 
had been the only motive or consideration, and not 
the desire of a good friend in tiic name of many 
others, I had been as silent to thy letter as 1 use 
to be to the idle and malicious shams of the times : 
but as the laws of friendship are sacred with those 
that value that relation, so I confess this to be a 
principal one with me, not to deny a friend the sa- 
tisfaction he desires, when it may be done without 
offence to a good conscience. 

"The business chiefiy insisted upon is my Po- 
pery, and endeavours to promote it. 1 do say then, 
and that with all sincerity, that I am not only no Je- 
suit, but no Papist; and, which is more, I never had 
any temptation upon me to be it, either from doubts 
in my own mind about the way I profess, or from 
the discourses or writings of any of that religion. 
And in the presence of Almighty God I do declare, 
that the King did never once, directly or indirectly, 
attack me,ortempt me, upon that subject, the many 
years that I have had the advantage of a free access 
to him; so unjust, as well as sordidly false, are 
all those stories of the town ! 

"The only reason, that I can apprehend, they 
have to repute me a Roman Catholic, is my fre- 
14 



154 

quent going to Whitehall, a place no more forbid to 
me than to the rest of the world, who yet, it seems,- 
find much fairer quarter. I have almost continually 
had one business or other there for our Friends, 
whom I ever served with a steady solicitation 
through all times since I was of their communion. 
I had also a great many personal good offices to do, 
upon a principle of charity, for people of all per- 
suasions, thinking it a duty to improve the little in- 
terest I had for the good of those that needed it, 
especially the poor. I might add something of my 
own affairs too, though I must own (if I may with- 
out vanity) that they have ever had the least share 
of my thoughts or pains, or else they would not have 
still depended as they yet do. 

*'But because some people are so unjust as to 
render instances for my Popery, (or rather hypocri- 
sy, for so it would be in me,) 'tis fit I contradict 
them as particularly as they accuse me. I say then 
solemnly, that I am so far from having been bred at 
St Omer's, and having received orders at Rome, 
that I never was at either place, nor do I know any 
body there ; nor had I ever a correspondence with 
any body in those places : which is another story in- 
vented against me. And as for my officiating in the 
King's chapel, or any other, it is so ridiculous as well 
as untrue, that, besides that nobody can do it but a 
priest, and that I have been married to a woman of 
iome condition above sixteen years (which no priest 



155 

can be by any dispensation whatever), I have not so 
much as looked into any chapel of the Roman 
religion, and consequently not the King's, though 
a common curiosity warrants it daily to people of 
all persuasions. 

"And, once for all, I do say that I am a Protes- 
tant Dissenter, and to that degree such, that I chal- 
lenge the most celebrated Protestant of the English 
church, or any other, on that head, be he layman or 
clergyman, in public or in private. For I would 
have such people know, 'tis not impossible for a 
true Protestant Dissenter to be dutiful, thankful, 
and serviceable to the King, though he be of the 
Roman Catholic communion. We hold not our 
property or protection from him by our persuasion, 
and therefore his persuasion should not be the mea- 
sure of our allegiance. I am sorry to see so many, 
that seem fond of the Reformed Religion, by their 
disaffection to him recommend it so ill. Whatever 
practices of Roman Catholics we might reasonably 
object against (and no doubt but such there are), 
yet he has disclaimed and reprehended those ill 
things by his declared opinion against persecution, 
by the ease in which he actually indulges all Dis- 
senters, and by the confirmation he oflers in Par- 
liament for the security of the Protestant religion 
and liberty of conscience. And in his honour, as 
well as in my own defence, I am obliged in con- 
science to say, that he has ever declared to me it 



156 

was his opinion; and on all occasions, when Duke, 
he never refased me the repeated proofs of it as 
often as I had any poor sufferers for conscience 
sake to solicit his help for. 

"But some may be apt to say, ' Why not any 
body else as well as I 9 Why must I have the 
preferable access to oilier Dissenters, if not a Pa- 
pist'?' I answer, I know not that it is so. — But 
this I know, that I have made it my province and 
business; I have followed and prest it ; I took it 
for my calling and station, and have kept it above 
these sixteen years ; and, which is more (if I may 
say it without vanity or reproach), wholly at my 
own charges too. To this let me add the relation 
my father had to this King's service, his particular 
favour in getting me released out of the Tower of 
London in 16(j9, my father's humble request to 
him upon his death bed to protect me from the in- 
conveniences and troubles my persuasion might 
expose me to, and his friendly promise to do it, and 
exact performance of it from the moment I ad- 
dressed myself to him ; I say, when all this is con- 
sidered, any body, that has the least pretence to 
good nature, gratitude, or generosity, must needs 
know how to interpret my access to the King. 
Perhaps some will be ready to say, ' This is not 
all, nor is this yet a fault ; but that I have been an 
adviser in other matters disgustful to the kingdom, 
and which tend to the overthrow of the Protestant 



157 

religion and the liberties of the people.' — A likely 
thing, indeed, that a Protestant dissenter, who 
from fifteen years old has been (at times) a sufferer 
in his f^ither's family, in the University, and by the 
government, for being so, should design the de- 
struction of the Protestant religion ! This is just 
as probable as it is true that I died a Jesuit six 
years ago in America. — Will men still suffer such 
stuff to pass upon them 9 — Is anything more fool- 
ish, as well as false, than that because I am often 
at Whitehall, therefore I must be the author of all 
that is done there that does not please abroad '? — 
But, supposing some such things to have been 
done, pray tell me, if I am bound to oppose any 
thing that I am not called to do*? I never was a 
member of council, cabinet, or committee, where 
the affairs of the kingdom are transacted. I have 
had no office, nor trust, and consequently nothing 
can be said to be done by me; nor, for that reason, 
could I lie under any test or obligation to disco- 
ver my opinion of public acts of state; and there- 
fore neither can any such acts, nor my silence 
about them, in justice be made my crime. Volun- 
teers are blanks and cyphers in all governments. 
And unless calling at Whitehall once a day, upon 
many occasions, or my not being turned out of no- 
thing (for that no office is), be the evidence of 
my compliance in disagreeable things, I know not 
what else can, with any truth, be alleged against 
me. However, one thing I know, that 1 have 
14* 



158 

every where most religiously observed, and endea- 
voured in conversation with persons of all ranks 
and opinions, to allay heats, and moderate ex- 
tremes, even in the politics. It is below me to be 
more particular ; but I am sure it has been my en- 
deavour, that if we could not all meet upon a re- 
ligious bottom, at least we might upon a civil one, 
the good of England, which is the common inte- 
rest of King and people; that he might be great 
by justice, and we free by obedience ; distinguish- 
ing rightly, on the one hand, between duty and 
slavery ; and, on the other, between liberty and 
licentiousness. 

" But, alas ! I am not without my apprehension of 
the cause of this behaviour towards me, and in this 
I perceive we agree ; I mean my constant zeal for 
an impartial liberty of conscience. But if that be 
it, the cause is too good to be in pain about. I 
ever understood that to be the natural right of all 
men ; and that he that had a religion without it, 
his religion was none of his own. For what is not 
the religion of a man's choice is the religion of 
him that imposes it; so that liberty of conscience 
is the first step to have a religion. This is no new 
opinion with me. I have writ many apologies 
within the last twenty years to defend it, and that 
impartially. Yet I have as constantly declared 
that bounds ought to be set to this freedom, and 
that morality was the best; and that as often as 



159 

that was violated, under a pretence of conscience, 
it was fit the civil power should take place. Nor 
did I ever think of promoting any sort of liberty of 
conscience for any body, which did not preserve 
the common Protestancy of the kingdom, and the 
ancient rights of the government ; for, to say truth, 
the one cannot be maintained without the other. 

" Upon the whole matter, I must say, I love 
England ; I ever did so; and that I am not in her 
debt. I never valued time, money, or kindred, to 
serve her and do her good. No party could ever 
bias me to her prejudice, nor any personal interest 
oblige me in her wrong : for I always abhorred 
discounting private favours at the public cost. 

" Would I have made my market of the fears 
and jealousies of the people, when this King came 
to the crown, I had put twenty thousand pounds 
into my pocket, and an hundred thousand into my 
province; for mighty numbers of people were then 
upon the wing : but I waved it all; hoped for bet- 
ter times; expected the effects of the King's word 
for liberty of conscience, and happiness by it : and 
till I saw my friends, with the kingdom, delivered 
from the legal bondage which penal laws for reli- 
gion had subjected them to, I could with no satis- 
faction think of leaving England, though much to 
my prejudice beyond sea, and at my great expense 
here, having in all this time never had either of- 



160 

fice or pension, and always refusing the rewards 
or gratuities of those I have been able to oblige. 

" If, therefore, an universal charity, if the assert- 
ing an impartial liberty of conscience, if doing to 
others as we would be done by, and an open avow- 
ing and steady practising of these things, in all 
times, and to all parties, will justly lay a man un- 
der the reflection of being a Jesuit, or Papist of 
any rank, I must not only submit to the character, 
but embrace it too ; and I care not who knows, 
that I can wear it with more pleasure than it is 
possible for them with any justice to give it me. 
For these are corner stones and principles with 
me; and I am scandalized at all buildings which 
have them not for their foundations. For religion 
itself is an empty name without them, a whited 
wall, a painted sepulchre, no life or virtue to the 
soul, no good or example to one's neighbour. Let 
us not flatter ourselves; we can never be the better 
for our religion, if our neighbour be the worse for it. 
Our fault is, we are apt to be mighty hot upon spe- 
culative errors, and break all bounds in our resent- 
ments; but we let practical ones pass without re- 
mark, if not without repentance : as if a mistake 
about an obscure proposition of faith were a greater 
evil than the breach of an undoubted precept. 
Such a religion the devils themselves are not with- 
out; for they have both faith and knowledge: but 
theirfaith doth network by love, northeir knowledge 



161 

by obedience. And if this be their judgment, can 
it be our blessing^ — Let us not then think religion 
a litigious thing, nor that Christ came only to 
make us good disputants, but that he came also to 
make us good livers : sincerity goes further than 
capacity. It is charity that deservedly excels in 
the Christian religion; and happy would it be if 
where unity ends, charity did begin, instead of 
envy and railing, that almost ever follow. It ap- 
pears to me to be the way that God has found out 
and appointed to moderate our differences, and 
make them at least harmless to society; and there- 
fore I confess, I dare not aggravate them to wrath 
and blood. Our disagreement lies in our appre- 
hension or belief of things; and if the common 
enemy of mankind had not the governing of our 
affections and passions, that disagreement would 
not prove such a canker, as it is, to love and peace 
in civil societies. 

" He that suffers his difference with his neigh- 
bour about the other world to carry him beyond 
the line of moderation in this, is the worse for his 
opinion, even though it be true. It is too little 
considered by Christians, that men may hold the 
truth in unrighteousness; that they may be ortho- 
dox, and not know what spirit they are of. So 
were the apostles of our Lord : they believed in 
him, yet let a false zeal do violence to their judg- 



162 

ment, and their unwarrantable heat contradict the 
great end of their Saviour's coming. Love. 

" Men may be angry for God's sake, and kill 
people too. Christ said it, and too many have 
practised it. But what sort of Christians must 
they be, I pray, that can hate in his name who bids 
us love, and kill for his sake that forbids killing, 
and commands love, even to enemies ? 

" Let not men, nor parties, think to shift it off 
from themselves. It is not this principle, nor that 
form, to which so great a defection is owing, but 
a degeneracy of mind from God. Christianity is 
not at heart ; no fear of God in the inward parts; 
no awe of his divine omnipresence. Self pre- 
vails, and breaks out, more or less, through all 
forms but too plainly, (pride, wrath, lust, avarice,) 
60 that though people say to God, Thy will be 
done, they do their own ; which shews them to be 
true Heathens, under a mask of Christianity, that 
believe without works, and repent without forsak- 
ing ; busy for forms, and the temporal benefits of 
them; while true religion, which is to visit the fa- 
therless and the widow, and to keep ourselves un- 
spotted from the world, goes barefoot, and like 
Lazarus is despised. Yet this was the definition 
the Holy Ghost gave of religion, before synods 
and councils had the meddling with it and mo- 
delling of it. In those days bowels were a good 



163 

part of religion, and that to the fatherless and wi- 
dow at large. We can hardly now extend them 
to those of our own way. It was said by him that 
could not say amiss, ' Because iniquity abounds, 
the love of many waxeth cold.' Whatsoever di- 
vides man's heart from God separates it from his 
neighbour; and he that loves self more than God 
can never love his neighbour as himself For (as 
the apostle said) 'If we do not love him v.hom 
we have seen, how can we love God whom wo 
have not seen. 

*'0 that we could see some men as eager to 
turn people to God, as they are to blow them up, 
and set them one against another! But, indeed, 
those only can have that pure and pious zeal, who 
are themselves turned to God, and have tasted the 
sweetness of that conversion, which is to power, 
and not to form; to godliness, and not to gain. 
Such as those do bend their thoughts and pains to 
appease, not increase heats and animosities; to 
exhort people to look at home, sweep their own 
houses, and weed their own gardens. And in no 
age or time vv'as there more need to set men at 
work in their own hearts than this we live in, 
when so busy, wandering, licentious a spirit pre- 
vails ; for, whatever some men may think, the dis- 
ease of this kingdom is sin, impiety against God, 
and want of charity to men. And while this guilt 
i« at our door, judgment cannot be far off. 



164 

"Now this being the disease, I will briefly offer 
two things for the cure of it. 

"The first is David's clean heart and right spirit, 
which he asked and had of God: without tliis we 
must be a chaos siill : for the distemper is within; 
and our Lord said, all evil comes from thence. Set 
the inward man right, and the outward man cannot 
be wrong ; that is the helm that governs the human 
vessel; and this nothing can do but an inward prin- 
ciple, the light and grace that came by Christ, 
which, the Scriptures tell us, enlightens every one, 
and hath appeared to all men. — It is pref)osterou3 
to think that he, who made the world, shouhl shew 
least care of the best part of it, our souls. No : he 
that gave us an outward luminary for our bodies, 
hath given us an inward one for our minds to act 
by. We have it ; and it is our condemnation that 
we do not love it, and bring our deeds to it. 'Tis 
by this we see our sins, are made sensible of them, 
sorry for them, and finally forsake them. And he 
that thinks to go to Heaven a nearer way will, I 
fear, belate his soul, and be irrevocably mistaken. 
There are but goats and sheep at last, whatever 
shapes we wear here. Let us not therefore, dear 
friend, deceive ourselves. Our souls are at stake ; 
God will not be mocked; what we sow we must 
expect to reap. There is no repentance in the 
grave ; which shews that, if none there, then no 
where else. To sum up this divinity of mine : It is 



165 

the light of Jesus in our souls, that gives us a true 
sight of ourselves, and that sight that leads us to re- 
pentance ; which repentance begets humility, and 
humility that true charity that covers a multitude • 
of faults, which I call God's expedient against 
man's infirmity. 

" The second remedy to our present distemper 
is this : Since all of all parties profevss to believe in 
God, Christ, the Spirit, and Scripture ; that the 
soul is immortal ; that there are eternal rewards 
and punishments; and that the virtuous sliall re- 
ceive the one, and the wicked suffer the other: I 
say, since this is the common faith of Christendom, 
let us all resolve in the strength of God to live up 
to what we agree in, before we fall out so misera- 
bly about the rest in which we differ. I um per- 
suaded, the change and comfort, w hich that pious 
course would bring us to, would go very Air to dis- 
pose our natures to compound easily for all the 
rest, and we might hope yet to see happy days in 
poor England, for there I would have so good a work 
begun. And how it is possible for the eminent 
men of every religious persuasion (especially the 
present ministers of the parishes of England) to 
think of giving an account to God at the last day 
without using the utmost of their endeavours to 
n.oderate the members of their respective commu- 
nirns towards those that differ from them, is a 
mystery to me. But this I know, and must lay it 
15 



16G 

at their doors ; I charge also my own soul with it ; 
God requires moderation and humility from us ; 
for he is at hand, who will not spare to judge our 
impatience, if we have no patience for one ano- 
ther. The eternal God rebuke (I beseech him) 
the wrath of man, and humble all under the sense 
of the evil of this day; and yet (unworthy as we 
are) give us peace for his holy name's sake. 

" It is now time to end this letter, and I will 
now do it without saying any more than this i 
Thou seest my defence against popular calumny ; 
thou seest what my thoughts are of our condition, 
and the way to better it ; and thou seest my hear- 
ty and humble prayer to Almighty God to incline 
us to be wise, if it were but for our own sakes. I 
shall only add, that I am extremely sensible of the 
kindness and justice intended me by my friends 
on this occasion, and that I am for that, and many 
more reasons, 

" Thy obliged and affectionate friend, 

"William Penn." 

We know from history that the consequence 
of the King's mode of proceeding, and his well 
known attachment to the Catholic cause, was that 
a tumult was excited, which ended in the flight of 
the King into France, and the establishment of 
William of Orange and his consort Mary on the 
throne. 



167 

Great was the change which William Penn 
now experienced. Lately the friend and favour- 
ite of the King, and the channel through which 
those who had favours to ask sought to present 
their requests, he now saw himself the object of 
suspicion and contempt, and threatened even with 
those persecutions himself which he had taken so 
much pains to remove from others. His mind na* 
turally turned, under these circumstances, to his 
own quiet and peaceful home in America; and it 
may well be imagined, that his heart panted for 
the sweets which it promised him. But the fear 
of appearing to deserve the suspicions of Popery 
which now rested upon him deterred him from 
availing himself of the asylum which it offered, and 
made him resolve to remain for the present where 
he was — guarded by the armour of an innocent 
heart and well spent life. But these did not prove 
sufficient to protect him from evil; for, whilst walk- 
ing soon after through Whitehall, he was sent for 
by the Lords of the Council, then sitting. In his 
examination he protested that " he had done no- 
thing but what he could answer before God, and 
all the princes in the world ; that he loved his 
country and the protestant religion above his life, 
and had never acted against either; that all he 
had ever aimed at in his public endeavours was 
no other than what the Prince himself had declar- 
ed for; that King James had ever been his friend, 
and his father's friend; and that in gratitude he 



168 

himself was the King's, and did ever, as much as 
in him lay, influence him to his true interest." 
This manly and frank declaration was of little 
service to him, and he was obliged to give security 
for his appearance on the first day of the next 
term; after which he was discharged. 

When the time, however, arrived for his answer- 
ing to the charges made against him, not one per- 
son could be found to substantiate them. Not a 
single being could be found who would say he was 
a Papist or a Jesuit, or that he had, in a single in- 
stance, aided the late King to establish Popery 
or arbitrary power; so that he was, of course, ac- 
quitted. 

Soon after this event, he had the pleasure of 
seeing the toleration act passed by King, Lords, 
and Commons; and though it was far from being 
equal to his wishes, it was still a very happy 
change in the state of the country. Dissenters 
of every denomination were " now excused from 
certain penalties if they would only take the oaths 
to government. They were allowed to apply for 
warrants for those houses in which they intended 
to worship ; and the magistrates were obliged to 
grant them; and, provided they worshipped in these 
with the doors not shut, they were not to be mo- 
lested." For the Quakers, this act contained a 
more particular exemption in relation to oaths; so 



169 

that there was at once an end to all the troubles, 
imprisonments, and hardships, wliich had so long 
harassed the country. This event must have been 
most highly gratifying to one who had laboured 
so hard for its accomplishment. That it owed its 
origin in a great measure to his endeavours there 
can be little doubt, as he had made a great impres- 
sion on the Prince of Orange, now King William, 
whilst at the Hague, as well as having been the 
means of drawing many of his countrymen into 
its support, both by his conversation and wri- 
tings. 

After this accomplishment of his wishes, his 
mind turned with renewed interest towards Amer- 
ica. He had found it necessary, since his depart- 
ture, to make various changes in his mode of 
government, and had only a short time before 
appointed a new deputy governor. It seemed, 
however, that his personal presence would afford 
the most likely means of setthng all disputes, and 
of putting an end to all dissatisfaction; he there- 
fore determined upon resuming his place amongst 
them as soon as he saw the new act of tokration 
received and sanctioned by the voice of the peo- 
ple. But no sooner was this the case, and he 
had commenced his preparations for his intended 
voyage, than he was arrested by a body of mili- 
tary, and again brought for examination before the 
Lords of the Council. 
15* 



The present charge against him was that of 
holding a correspondence with the late King, who 
was then in France; on hearing which, he begged 
to appeal to King William in person. This was 
granted, and a letter produced from King James 
to him, which had been intercepted. On being 
questioned concerning it, he acknowledged, with 
the frankness of a manly and innocent mind, that 
the King's motive for writing that letter appeared 
evidently to be, to induce him to endeavour to re- 
place him on the throne ; but that it had been 
written without his knowledge or concurrence; 
and that, much as he loved the late King, and felt 
obliged to him for all his former marks of friend- 
ship, he had too sincere an interest in the welfare 
of his country, and felt too strongly the duty he 
owed the state, to think of being instrumental in 
restoring his lost crown. This defence brought 
such conviction to the mind of the King, that he 
was inclined to acquit him immediately ; but ob- 
jections being made to this by some of the Coun- 
cil, he was ordered to give bail for his appearance 
at the next Trinity Term, after which he was al- 
lowed to go at large as before. Again the time 
for his appearance in court arrived, and again, no 
one coming forward against him, he was honour- 
ably acquitted. 

Once more at liberty, he again began to think 
of returning to America; when, in consequence of 



171 

a threatened invasion by the French during King 
William's absence in Ireland, the Queen was obli- 
ged to exert herself for the defence of the nation. 
And, in order to strike terror into the hearts of the 
supposed conspirators, ^he published a proclama- 
tion for apprehending many suspected persons, 
amongst whom was William Penn. Here then 
we see this excellent man again an inhabitant of a 
prison, where he lay for some time. At length 
being brought before the Court of King's Bench, 
he was again acquitted ; for, though some appear- 
ed in evidence, nothing could be proved against 
him. 

It cannot be wondered at that he now turned 
with sickening anxiety towards the peaceful shades 
of America. Harassed and persecuted in a coun- 
try which he had spent his life in endeavours to 
serve, he longed for a distant and more friendly 
home. The object for which he had crossed the 
Atlantic was in a great measure accomplished, 
and he felt himself authorized to seek that security 
for his person in Pennsylvania which seemed to be 
denied him in his native country. 

Just at the time that he was almost ready for 
departure, George Fox, the great founder of the 
society of Quakers, died in London ; and he had 
the satisfaction of performing the last offices of 
friendship to him whilst iivmg, as well as of 



172 

attending his remains to the grave — where he 
spoke for a considerable time to about two thou- 
sand persons. Little did he imagine that at that 
very moment emissaries were again employed to 
denounce him as an enemy to his country. An 
infamous fellow of the name of Fuller, who was 
afterwards declared by Parliament to be " a cheat 
and an impostor," came forward and made accusa- 
tion against him upon oath, in consequence of 
which persons were sent with a warrant to appre- 
hend him even at the funeral of his friend. For- 
tunately, however, they had mistaken the time and 
arrived too late. 

There was now no alternative but that of the 
vessels, which had many emigrants ready to em- 
bark in them, sailing without him, as he could 
not with honour, under present circumstances, 
leave the kingdom. To have done so, by way of 
avoiding the execution of the law, would have 
been useless, as he was equally subject to it in 
America as in England. But, had that not been the 
case, his mind would have revolted from it, as hav- 
ing the appearance of flying from the punishment 
which he knew himself not to deserve. Equally 
prudent, however, as spirited, he was no way dis- 
posed to throw himself in the way of his enemies, 
and therefore determined to keep himself in re- 
tirement — where, (hough he might easily be dis- 
covered by those who wished to find him, he would 



173 

cease to force himself upon the public attention. 
Influenced by these considerations, he took a pri- 
vate lodging in London, where study, religious ex- 
ercises and the visits of a few friends combined 
to cheer and lighten his hours of retirement. 

The subject of most serious regret to him was, 
the bad effect of his absence on the affairs of the 
province, where differences had arisen which he 
alone was capable of adjusting. Jealousies had 
been excited which would probably never have 
been known had he been himself at the head of the 
government; for the candour, openness, and im- 
partiality of his conduct were peculiarly well cal- 
culated to remove every suspicion, and hush every 
rising discontent. His personal assistance, how- 
ever, it was now out of his power to give, so that 
his only resource was to send his best advice and 
most affectionate admonitions by letter. 

Among the friends who visited him in his retire- 
ment was John Locke. This great philosopher 
had come over to England in the same fleet which 
had brought the Prince of Orange, and now came 
forward with the same offer of services which Wil- 
liam Penn had made him in similar circumstances. 
But Locke received the same answer which he 
had then given ; for, conscious that he had done 
nothing which required pardon, William Penn re- 



174 

fused to accept it, and thus imply an acknowledg- 
ment of guilt. 

When he had been about six weeks in retirement, 
a second proclamation was issued for his appre- 
hension, on the plea of his having been engaged 
with Dr Turner, Bishop of Ely, and James Gra- 
hame, in a conspiracy with the Earl of Clarendon, 
the Viscount Preston, and others, to bring James 
the Second back to England; but he continued 
to keep himself quietly in his lodgings : and it is 
remarkable, that though no extraordinary privacy 
was observed, he was never disturbed by consta- 
ble, magistrate, or officer of justice of any kind. 

During this period he was actively employed in 
writing, as the only means then in his power of ser- 
ving his fellow creatures, for whose benefit it was 
constantly his delight to labour. But in the midst 
of this employment, his apprehensions were ex- 
cited by an event which seemed to threaten a de- 
structive blow to his domestic happiness. His 
wife's health had long been declining, but was now 
in a very alarming state. The difficulties and 
hardships which her husband had encountered and 
still laboured under had proved too much for her 
strength to bear, and her life seemed likely to 
prove the sacrifice. 

Still, however, the measure of his misfortunes 



175 

was not completed, but other and severe trials 
awaited him. The account of the disturbances 
and discontents which had arisen in his province 
had reached the ears of his enemies, and had 
been eagerly seized upon by them as a means of 
accomplishing his ruin. For this purpose it had 
been industriously circulated, and pains had been 
taken to impress the minds of the King and Queen 
with the belief, that he was incapable of governing 
— and that nothing could save Pennsylvania from 
ruin but taking it out of his hands. The success 
of his enemies was equal to their wishes; and a 
commission was granted by William and Mary to 
Colonel Fletcher, the Governor of New York, to 
take upon himself the government of Pennsylvania, 
of which William Penn was wholly deprived. 

It is impossible for description to do justice to 
such a situation as that to which this excellent man 
was now reduced. Deprived at once of all the fond 
expectations he had enjoyed of governing a vir- 
tuous and happy people; his fortune lost with the 
provin e in which it had been vested; dashed from 
the high station which he had lately enjoyed in the 
smiles of royalty ; slandered and reviled by his ene- 
mies, and looked upon with coldness and suspi- 
cidh even by those whi) had formerly been his 
friends; a tender and affectionate wife sinking ra- 
pidly under the misfortunes which had thus accu- 
mulated upon her husband — what could have sup- 



176 

ported him under such circumstances but that 
which can sustain and comfort under every trial 1- 
Religion, that friend which he had chosen m his 
earliest youth, was now his consolation and his 
support. With this, and with the balm of a 
spotless conscience, he was resigned and patient, 
receiving all as from the hand of Him who is able 
to make "all things work together for good." 

He now anxiously wished to hasten to Pennsyl- 
vania, that he might still be near to watch over 
the constitution he had so carefully formed, and 
to take care that no infringements might be made 
upi)n its rights and liberties, without a protest 
against it either by himself or others. But here, 
besides the illness of his wife, another difficulty 
arose : his circumstances had become so embarras- 
sed, that he knew not how to accomplish his 
wishes; so that his continuance in the country 
where he had met with nothing but hardship still 
remained as much a matter of necessity as it had 
ever been. 

At length a few of those great men who had 
lon5.^ known and esteemed him were roused to a 
sense of the injustice under which he suffered. 
They therefore went in a body to the King, aTjd 
pleaded his cause with so much effect, that his 
Majesty (who had previously known and respected 
him) gave them an order for him to be immedi- 



177 

ately set at liberty. But it does not appear that 
William Penn was himself quite satisfied with the 
mode of his release, as he afterwards obtained per- 
mission to make his own defence before the King 
and many of the Lords of Council ; after which he 
was honourably acquitted. 

His restoration to public esteem was a subject 
of peculiar satisfaction at this crisis ; for the health 
of his wife was now in so hopeless a state, that 
there was no other prospect than of a speedy ter- 
mination to her existence. To see her husband 
restored to his place in society must have been a 
balm to her wounded bosom ; and though her own 
frame had sunk under the calamities that had be- 
fallen him, an amiable mind, such as hers is repre- 
sented to have been, must have rejoiced in the 
prospect of usefulness which still seemed to lie be- 
fore her beloved partner. Her decline was gra- 
dual, and her death composed, tranquil, and resign- 
ed. She expired in the arms of her husband, who 
thus speaks of her in a memorial he drew up after 
her death: "I hope I may say she was a public 
as well as a private loss ; for she was not only an 
excellent wife and mother, but an entire and con- 
stant friend, of a more than common capacity, and 
great modesty and humility; yet most equal, and 
undaunted in danger; religious as well as ingen- 
uous, without affectation; an easy mistress and 
good neighbour, especially to the poor ; neither 
10 



178 

lavish nor penurious ; but an example of industry, 
as well as of other virtues : therefore our great loss; 
though her own eternal gain." 

After the death of his wife, he devoted himself 
for some time almost entirely to the care of his 
family, to which he felt that he had to act the part 
of a double parent; and in no point of view what- 
ever does this great man appear to more advantage 
than in the character of a father. Deeply impres- 
sed with a sense of the importance of the duties 
which devolved upon the head of a family, we have 
already seen a beautiful example of his solicitude 
for his children in the letter he wrote to them, 
even at the time that he was pressed by such a 
variety of engagements. Indeed, the whole of 
his domestic character is of such a nature as to 
shed a beautiful and captivating lustre over all his 
public exertions. 

Steady and persevering as' he was in all his un- 
dertakings, it is not to be supposed that he could 
resign one that had taken such hold of his heart, 
as the government of his province and territories 
had done, without an effort to recover it. For 
this purpose, soon after his honourable discharge, 
he sent a petition to the King to have it restored 
to hun. This petition we are happy to say was 
successful, and not only so, but the instrument by 
which it was restored was worded in a manner 



170 

highly creditable to him; for it declared, "that 
the disorders and confusion into which the pro- 
vince and territories had fallen had been occa- 
sioned entirely by his absence from them." From 
this time he began rapidly to recover in the esti- 
mation of his countrymen ; for the base character of 
Fuller had become fully known, and he had under- 
gone the disgrace of the pillory for crimes which 
deserved a still more severe punishment. 

His duties as a public minister now called Wil- 
liam Penn for a time from home, when he visited 
the counties of Gloucester, Somerset, Devon, and 
Dorset, holding meetings almost daily at the most 
considerable towns, to which the people flocked in 
great numbers. From this time nothing particular 
seems to have occurred to him till the beginning 
of the year 1696, the third from the death of his 
wife, when we find him again entering into the 
marriage state with Hannah, daughter of Thomas 
Callowhill,and grand-daughter of Dennis Hollister, 
two eminent merchants of the city of Bristol, who 
had both joined the religious society of Quakers. 

Soon after this event, his happiness met with a 
severe shock from the death of his eldest son, a very 
promising young man, who had just passed his 
twentieth year. As his disorder was consumption, 
his decease had no doubt been long anticipated, 
but as he possessed most amiable and engaging 



180 

manners and dispositions, and had also made great 
attainments in learning, his loss could not but be 
severely felt by his relatives and friends. To this 
beloved son William Penn acted the part of a 
tender and affectionate nurse, attending him con- 
stantly, with the kindest solicitude, for the last three 
months of his life. And, after receiving his last 
breath on his bosom, he gratified the natural feel- 
ings of a parent by giving to the world an account 
of his exemplary resignation and piety, during his 
long and trying illness. 

From this time to the year 1 690, though actively 
employed in preaching and writing, the life of 
William Penn presents no very important incid- 
ent. At this period, however, we find him prepar- 
ing to resume his personal charge of the govern- 
ment of Pennsylvania, to which place he sailed 
with his wife and children in September 1699. 
They had a long and tedious voyage of three 
months, which however proved eventually fortun- 
ate for them, as it detained them from Philadelphia 
at the time that it was visited by a contagious dis- 
temper which was fatal to many of its inhabitants. 
We have a letter* before us at this moment from 



* This extract, with all the further letters and extracts which we 
shall insert, is taken from " Selections from the Correspondence of the 
Hon. James Logan, copied from the Originals by Mrs Deborah Lo- 
gan ;" to whom we are obliged for the use which we now make of 
them. 



181 

one Isaac Norris, a highly respectable inhabitant of 
the city at that time, of whom William Penn, in 
a letter written some years afterwards, says that 
he was a masterpiece for his education. In this 
letter the state of the city is thus described : — 

"In my last letter I advised something of it be- 
ing sickly here, which affliction it has pleased the 
almighty and allwise God still to continue very 
sorely upon us, which causes many to bow before 
Him. There is not a day, nor a night has passed 
for several weeks but we have the account of the 
death or sickness of some friend or neighbour. It 
hath been sometimes very sickly, but I never be- 
fore knew it so mortal as novt^. About ten days 
ago there was reckoned nine persons lay dead at 
the same time, and I think seven or eight this day 
lay dead together." 

Fortunately for William Penn and the compa- 
nions of his voyage, we find that this affliction had 
entirely passed away before their arrival, as ap- 
pears by another letter from the same hand, which 
says, after announcing the arrival of the proprie- 
tary and his family, " Our place, through great 
mercy, is very healthy again ; and an extraordi- 
nary moderate and open fall." We shall add an 
interesting account of William Penn's arrival, 
and the manner in which he was received; which 
is given in a letter from his secretary James Lo- 
16* 



182 

gan to William Penn, Jun. the only surviving son 
of the proprietary by his first wife, who being mar- 
ried remained in England : — 

*' The highest terms I could use would hardly 
give you an idea of the expectation and welcome 
that thy father received from the most of the ho- 
nester party here. Friends generally concluded 
that after all their troubles and disappointments, 
this province now scarce wanted any thing more 
to render it completely happy. The faction that 
had long contended to overthrow the settled con- 
stitution of the government received a universal 
damp, yet endeavoured what mischief they could 
by speaking whispers that the proprietary could 
not act as governor without the King's approba- 
tion and taking an oath, as obliged by act of par- 
liament, but that in a great measure soon blew 
over. Colonel Quarry, judge, and John Moore, 
advocate of the admiralty, the two ringleaders, 
went down to the water side among the crowd 
to receive the governor at his landing, who not 
seeming to regard the very submissive welcome 
they gave him, and taking notice of an old ac- 
quaintance that stood by them, expected nothing 
but almost as open hostility from the proprietary 
as they were at before with Colonel Mackham, es- 
pecially having heard that copies of Colonel Quar- 
ry's letters to the Admiralty at home against the 
government were also brought over. 



183 

" Directly from the wharf the governor went to 
his deputy's, paid him a short formal visit, and from 
thence with a crowd attending to meeting, it be- 
ing about 3 o'clock on First day afternoon, where 
he spoke on a double account to the people, and 
praying, concluded it. From thence to Edward 
Shippen's, where we lodged for about a month." 

The dissensions which are likewise touched 
upon in this letter, and which at the time called so 
loudly for the wise and judicious head of the com- 
munity, have long since lost their interest; but were 
it even otherwise, this is not the place for enter- 
ing into a discussion of them, where the only aim 
is to sketch the character of William Penn, not 
to give a history of his colony ; whilst those who 
are desirous of having a more circumstantial ac- 
count of the transactions of the infant community, 
may easily have their curiosity gratified by a pe- 
rusal of the regular histories of those times. Not 
equally irrelevant to our subject are the characters 
of those whom he had chosen as his intimate as- 
sociates, for there is perhaps no way by which a 
more correct view may be given of the mind that 
it is our endeavour to pourtray, than by sketching 
the characters of some of those who accompanied 
him to this country, and who were the most nearly 
connected with him. This task is for two reasons 
peculiarly agreeable, the one, because it is always 
delightful to speak of excellence, and the other, 



184 

because we have before us a picture of that ex- 
cellence sketched by pencils far superior to any^ 
we could ourselves have employed on the occa- j 
sion. The person most intimately connected withh 
this great man — his wife Hannah Penn — appears? 
to have been a woman in every respect worthy oft 
being the friend and companion of so great a cha- -I 
racter. For the sake of pourtraying her merits s| 
in the glowing colours of the energetic writer toi' 
whom we have before referred, who spoke from i| 
personal knowledge, and evidently under the im- 
pulse of strong feeling ; we will anticipate a little^ 
our dates, and give two extracts from letters writ-^ 
ten on the eve of William Penn's second return 4 
to his native country. At this time Isaac Norris'J 
thus expresses himself: — , 

" The governor, wife and daughter, well — their^' 
little son is a lovely babe — his wife is a woman i 
extremely well beloved here; exemplary in her • 
station, and of an excellent spirit, which adds lus-' 
tre to her character; and has a great place in the 
hearts of good people." 

Again, after expressing himself in terms of great 
respect and affection of the governor, he speaks 
thus of his wife : — 

" She is beloved by all, I believe I may say to 
the full extent ; so is her leaving us heavy and of 



135 

real sorrow to her friends. She has carried her- 
self under and through all with a wonderful even- 
ness, humility and freedom. Her sweetness and 
goodness has become her character, and is indeed 
extraordinary. In short, we love her, and she de- 



I The person who stood next to his excellent 

jwife in the confidence of the governor whilst in 

, this country was his secretary Logan, of whom we 

have the following beautiful sketch by the same 

pen which not only copied the " Selections" from 

which we have been permitted to make so many 

[I valuable extracts, but has also enriched them with 

I many important notes : — 

" James Logan, whose services to the public and 
to William Penn, the illustrious founder of Penn- 
; sylvania, were so many and so important, was 
1 born at Lingan in Ireland the 20th of the 8th 
month 1674. His family were originally of Scot- 
land, and were very opulent until the crown seized 
the estates, alleging that Sir Robert Logan was 
implicated in the conspiracy of the Earls of Gow- 
1 rie. His father Patrick Logan had received a 
university education, being designed for the 
church ; but becoming convinced of the religious 
principles of the people called Quakers, he relin- 
quished his profession, and went over to Ireland 
with his wife, where he settled and educated his 



186 

children. The abilities of this son must have^ 
been early apparent, for he speaks of having at-t 
tained the Latin, Greek, and.>some Hebrew be-ij 
fore he was thirteen years of age, and also that inr 
his sixteenth year, having met with a book of that 
Leybourns on mathematics, he made himself mas- 
ter of that science without any manner of instruc-i 
tion. He had been put apprentice to a conside- • 
rable linen draper in Dublin, but the Prince of 
Orange landing, and the war in Ireland coming^ 
on before he was bound, he was returned to hisii 
parents, and went over with them first to Edin^ • 
burgh, and then to London and Bristol. Here, he 
says, whilst employed in instructing others, he im- 
proved himself in the Greek and Hebrew ; he also 
learned French and Italian with some Spanish, , 
and he notices that he went three months to a i 
French master to learn pronunciation without I 
which he was sensible he should never be able to 
speak it ; and this he says was the only money he ) 
ever paid for instruction, for though he had his j 
course of humanity, as it is called, from his fa- • 
ther, yet he could safely say that he never gave/ 
him the least instruction whatsoever more than he : 
gave to his other pupils. In 1698 he had a pros- 
pect of engaging in a trade between Dublin and 
Bristol, and had commenced it with a good pros- 
pect of success, when in the spring of 1699 Wil- 
liam Penn made proposals to him to accompany 
him to Pennsylvania as his secretary; he submit- 



187 

ted this offer to the consideration of his friends 
who disagreed in their judgment, himself decided 
in its favour, and accordingly sailed with Wil- 
liam Penn, 3 September 1699, in the Canterbury, 
Fryers master. Their voyage was prosperous, and 
they arrived in Philadelphia the beginning of the 
10th month, December, following. 

"The then adverse state of his affairs caused the 
stay of the Proprietor to be but short ; for in less 
.; than two years he returned to England leaving his 
, secretary invested with many important offices, 
i which he discharged with singular fidelity and 
; judgment ; he was secretary of the province, com- 
. missioner of property, for some time president of 
I the council, and afterwards chief justice of Penn- 
l sylvania. 

'' Notwithstanding his life was thus devoted to bu- 
siness, he found time to cultivate his love of science, 
and at length was permitted to enjoy the treasures of 
knowledge which he had acquired in a truly dig- 
nified retirement at his seat of Stenton near Ger- 
mantown. He corresponded with the literati in 
various parts of Europe, and received at his house 
all strangers of distinction or repute who visited 
Pennsylvania. He was also the patron of inge- 
nious men and constantly exerted himself to pro- 
cure for merit its well earned meed : Dr Franklin 
experienced his protection and friendship, and it 



was to him that Thomas Godfrey first imparted his ij 
ideas of the celebrated quadrant which ought to :! 
to bear his name instead of that of Hadley. The 
instrument was submitted to the inspection of 
James Logan who procured it to be taken to sea, , 
and finding its value greatly exerted himself! 
(though without effect) to have the merit of the: : 
invention and its promised reward secured to its ; 
real author. 

"The confidence which William Penn reposed 
in the abilities and integrity of his secretary is 
abundantly evinced in his letters to him. Fidelity, 
integrity, and disinterestedness were eminently 
conspicuous in his character, wliich was indeed of 
that sterling worth, that needs no meretricious or- 
nament. 

"The aborigines whose concerns were consign- 
ed to his care by William Penn paid an aflfecting 
tribute to his worth, when in his advanced age 
they intreated his attendance on their behalf at a 
treaty held at Philadelphia in 1742, where they 
publicly testified by their chief Cannassatego 
their satisfaction for his services and sense of his 
worth, calling him a wise and good man, and ex- 
pressing their hopes that when his soul ascended 
to God one just like him might be found for the 
good of the province and their benefit. 



189 

" Besides his published works there is an essay 
on moral philosophy still extant in manuscript and 
letters on a variety of subjects which shew the deep 
research of which the mind of this great man was 
capable, and it is pleasing to reflect that although he 
suffered more than the usual infirmities of a^e 
(having injured himself severely by a fall some 
years before) yet his mind was sustained in undi- 
minished excellence. He was eminently happy 
in domestic life, his wife being a most amiable 
lady, and his children dutiful and affectionate. 
After a retirement of several years from public bu- 
siness, he finished his useful and active life at his 
seat of Stenton, October the 31st, 1751, having 
just entered into the 77th year of his age. 

"He left the valuable library which bears his 
name a legacy to the public. Such at least was 
his intention, and his children after his death ful- 
filled the bequest." 

Many others might be mentioned whose names 
we recognize at this day in their descendants, and 
whose fair fame has been handed down without a 
blemish; but there would be no end to the list 
were we once to outstep the limits of Penn's own 
immediate household. 

It was the intention of the proprietary on his 
second emigration to this country, to make it the 
17 



190 

place of his future residence, and to devote the 
remainder of his life to rearing and nourishing his 
infant colony. One of his first cares was to bring 
two bills before the assembly, for the suppression 
of piracy and illicit trade, and his next to improve 
the good understanding that subsisted between 
the new settlers and the native inhabitants of the 
country, which he sought chiefly by trying to ci- 
vilize the Indians themselves — not, however, by 
forcing a religion upon them, the sublime nature 
and principles of which they were altogether in- 
capable of comprehending, but by leading them 
on by gradual instruction to the adoption of that 
highest species of refinement, an imitation of 
the example of our Divine Teacher. On every 
occasion the powerful mind of this great man 
took at once a philosophical view of every 
subject that it embraced ; and hence we find him ] 
in his plans of government not enacting a severe 
code of laws, with the idea that crime was to be 
prevented by the dread of punishment alone; but 
justly conceiving that ignorance is the sole cause 
of crime, he sought to prevent it by impressing on 
the minds of those whom he wished to benefit the 
beauty of virtue, as well as the inexpediency of 
vice; and for this purpose he earnestly set about 
forming plans for educating the youth of the co- 
lony, and leading them to virtue by a knowledge 
of the paths which they ought to pursue, rather 
than by frightening them from those which they 
ought to avoid. Education he knew to be the 



191 

foundation stone of that sublime moral fabric 
which he was anxious to erect, and which he hoped 
would prove not only a blessing to those who 
helped to raise the superstructure, but a beacon 
light to conduct others to a secure and peaceful 
harbour. Much is it to be wished that the execu- 
tive powers of the present day w^ere equally con- 
vinced of the importance of a ^stem of public 
education, and that the means, not simply of learn- 
ing to read and write, but of acquiring from well 
qualified teachers a solid and useful course of 
education, were within the power of every child in 
the state. The erection of schools would then 
supersede the necessity of building penitentiaries, 
and this city, which was nominated by its benevo- 
lent founder the scene of brotherly love, would 
indeed become the seat of peace, piety, and learn- 
ing. 

William Penn's ideas on this subject we have 
in his own powerful language, when he says, 
'' That, therefore, which makes a good constitu- 
tion must keep it, viz. men of wisdom and virtue, 
qualities that, because they descend not with 
v^orldly inheritances, must be carefully propagated 
by a virtuous education of youth, for which after 
ages will owe more to the care and prudence of 
founders and the successive magistracy, than to 
their parents for their private patrimonies." 



192 

And again, " Upon the whole matter, I take the 
freedom to say, that if we would preserve our go- 
vernment, we must endear it to the people. To 
do this, besides the necessity of present, just, and 
wise things, we must secure the youth : this is not 
to be done but by the amendment of their way of 
education; and that with all convenient speed and 
diligence. I say, the government is highly oblig- 
ed : it is a sort of trustee for the youth of the king- 
dom, who, though now minors, yet will have the 
government when we are gone. Therefore de- 
press vice, and cherish virtue ; that through good 
education they may become good; which will 
truly render them happy in this world, and a good 
way fitted for that which is to come. If this be 
done, they will owe more to your memories for 
their education than for their estates." 

The idea of what constitutes a good education he 
has given us in the following excellent reflections : 
"If one went to see Windsor Castle, or Hampton 
Court, it* would be strange not to observe and re- 
member the situation, the building, the gardens, 
fountains, &c. that make up the beauty and plea- 
sure of such a seat. And yet how few people 
know themselves. No, not their own bodies, the 
houses of their minds, the most curious structure 
of the world; a living, walking tabernacle; — nor 
the world of which it was made and out of which 
it is fed, which would be so much our benefit, as 



193 

well as our pleasure to know. We cannot doubt 
of this when we are told that ' the invisible things 
of God are brought to light by the things that are 
seen,' and consequently we read our duty in them 
to him that is the Great and Wise Author of them, 
as often as we look upon them, if we look as we 
should do. The world is certainly a gi^at and 
stately volume of natural things, and may be not 
improperly styled the hieroglyphics of a better. 
But alas ! how very few leaves of it do we serious- 
ly turn over ! This ought to be the subject of the 
education of our youth, who at twenty, when 
they should be fit for business, know nothing of 
it. It would go a great way to caution and di- 
rect people in their use of the world, that they 
were better studied and knowing in the creation 
of it. For how could men find the conscience to 
abuse it, while they should see the Great Creator 
look them in the face, in all and every part there- 
of." 

Another of William Penn's favourite objects 
was the improvement of the city, which had in- 
creased, during his absence, with amazing rapidity. 
At the time of his quitting it for England it consist- 
ed of a hundred houses, and on his return he found 
it to contain seven hundred. The calamitous visi- 
tation, however, of the yellow fever, which it had 
experienced a short time previous to his arrival, 

proved that great care was necessary to preserve 
17* 



194 

the health of the inhabitants, and for this purpose 
he made various judicious arrangements with re- 
spect to the free ventilation and cleanliness of the 
city. His own house was in Second Street, where 
the house of Robert Wain, Esq. now stands, but 
his chief place of residence was at Pennsbury, 
which is described in the following manner in a 
note by the same pen to which we have before ac- 
knowledged our obligations : — 

** Pennsbury house was built in the manor of 
that name situated in a bend of the river Delaware, 
being the easternmost point of Pennsylvania, the 
land of an excellent quality, and the situation ex- 
ceedingly pleasant. The house was standing 
since my memory and some of the old furniture in 
it, though in a very neglected and decayed con- 
dition ; for a long time an apartment was kept 
there for the agent of the family when he visited 
the estate, and he described the beds and linen 
as having been excellent. When I was a child 
I remember going with my mother to visit one of 
her friends, who had made a pilgrimage to Penns- 
bury and had brought away, as a relic, a piece of 
the old bed then still standing ; it was of holland 
and closely wrought with a needle in a small pat- 
tern with green silk, it was said to be the work of 
his daughter Letitia. Some years afterwards, du- 
ring the revolutionary war, a person of my ac- 
quaintance was there when the house had fallen 



195 

in and was in ruins, a hedge pear tree growing 
among them. I have since seen the situation ; but 
nothing ofthe mansion remained, the materials hav- 
ing been taken away : an old malt house and some 
other outbuildings were still standing, and an 
avenue of walnut trees planted along the road. 
There are beautiful islands in the river, which here 
makes a considerable bend. I thought the situa- 
tion very pleasant. 

"The mansion was represented as being large 
and handsome for the time it was built, the frames 
and other work being brought from England. It was 
leaded, with probably a cistern of the same, from 
whence the tradition that there was a fish pond on 
the roof, which I remember to have heard. The 
garden was large, and laid out with pastures and 
good fruit trees." 

From Pennsbury he made frequent excursions 
both in the character of a minister of religion, and 
on visits to the Indians. He also received fre- 
quent visits from them, and at one time we hear 
of his being present at an Indian feast. The en- 
tertainment was given by the side of a beautiful 
spring, carpeted, probably, with soft grass, and 
canopied, we are told, by the overshadowing 
branches of lofty trees. Their repast consisted of 
venison for which several bucks were killed, and 
hot cakes of wheat and beans. Dancing con- 
cluded the entertainment. His visit was returned 



196 

by kings and queens, who, we may be well assur- 
ed, would experience, at his house, all the hospi- 
tality he could exercise. 

About this time, during one of his journeys 
through the territories as a minister, an anecdote 
is recorded of him which, though trifling in its na- 
ture, we cannot think of passing unnoticed. On 
his road he overtook a little girl, who was walking 
from Derby to Haverford to meeting. Having in- 
quired whither she was going, and being informed, 
he desired her to get up behind him, and brought 
his horse to a convenient place for her to mount. 
Thus with his little companion on the bare back 
of the horse, and without either shoes or stockings, 
did the Governor of Pennsylvania proceed to the 
town to which he was going. We have great plea- 
sure in relating this little incident as a proof of 
the simplicity of his manners and the kindness of 
his disposition; qualities which are too seldom seen 
in persons of his ability and elevated rank : for few 
men are aware how much the most distinguished 
talents and titles are ornamented by courteousness 
and humility. We often hear of minds capable of 
comprehending vast and important subjects, and 
of accomplishing undertakings which will hand 
their names down to posterity; but we seldom have 
the gratification which William Penn's character 
affords, of marking the union of the most distin- 



197 

guished abilities, with dispositions the most amia- 
ble and engaging. 

During the whole of his residence here, things 
appear to have gone on in the most peaceable 
and satisfactory manner; and happy would it have 
been both for him and those whom he had come 
to govern, had he been permitted to remain 
amongst them : but though so warm a friend to 
peace, the comforts of it never seem to have been 
his portion for any length of time, and we conse- 
quently find that before he had been above two 
years in this country, his tranquillity was again 
interrupted. 

It appears that the Governors at home having 
become jealous of the growing influence of the 
Proprietary Governors in America, had formed a 
plan for buying them off. For this purpose a bill 
was brought into the House of Lords. The hard- 
ship of this measure was remonstrated against by 
those owners of land in Pennsylvania, who were 
at that time in England, and they solicited a ces- 
sation to the proceeding till William Penn could 
arrive and answer for himself. 

This intelligence was immediately despatched to 
America, and could not fail of being exceedingly 
distressing to one who had the good of the province 
so much at heart, and had only as yet commenced the 



198 

improvements in which his feelings were so warmly 
engaged. He had also every reason to believe 
that, in the unfinished state in which things still 
remained, without his presence and authority tran- 
quillity would not long be maintained. Not to go 
to England, however, would be to subject his go- 
vernment to total dissolution; and, therefore, as 
the less evil, he decided on going. 

After appointing a deputy governor, and mak- 
ing such other arrangements as the time would 
permit, he set sail with his wife and family, leav- 
ing James Logan behind, who was empowered to 
act for him in various important capacities ; and 
landed in England after a passage of six wrecks. 
He had been about two years in Pennsylvania, 
during which time it is said by Besse, in an 
account of his life prefixed to a collection of his 
works, that "he had applied himself to the affairs 
of government, always preferring the good of the 
country and its inhabitants to his own private in- 
terest, rather remitting than rigorously exacting 
his lawful revenues ; so that, under the influence 
of his paternal administration, he left the province 
in an easy and flourishing condition." Soon after 
this, we find him involved in difficulties of a new 
kind; for he now began to be assailed by pecu- 
niary embarrassments, in addition to the many 
others which had afliicted him. 



199 

It is much to be lamented, that the most liberal 
and active benefactors of mankind have so often 
had cause to repent of their generosity, and that 
the ingratitude of those whom they vs^ere anxious to 
serve has rendered them in the end severe suffer- 
ers. Such was the case with William Penn, in 
return for his generous and indefatigable exertions 
in the service of the Jersey and Pennsylvanian col- 
onists. His expenses, as may well be supposed, 
had been enormous; but the colonists ungrate- 
fully neglected to make him those pecuniary re- 
turns which were his legal right, and on which he 
himself depended. 

These difficulties are referred to with great feel- 
ing by James Logan, where he says, '' The ac- 
count of thy circumstances and the exigencies I 
know thou must labour under there, with the diffi- 
culties I am oppressed with here through the great 
decay of trade and the poverty of the planters from 
whom chiefly we receive our pay, makes my life 
so uncomfortable that it is not worth the living. 
I am ground on all sides. I know it is impossible 
to satisfy thee thus, and the condition of our af- 
fairs will not enable me to do better." 

And in a letter dated a short time after this, Wil- 
liam Penn says himself, when writing to James 
Logan, " I have not had one penny towards my 
support since the taking of the two ships I ad- 



200 

vised thee of, and have lived in town ever since I 
came over, at no small expense ; having not been 
three months of the twenty I have been in Eng- 
land absent from court." In another letter, he 
says, " My exigencies indeed are very pressing, 
but I had rather be poor with a loving people than 
rich with an ungrateful one." 

In the same letter from which we have made 
this extract, he speaks of having received intelli- 
gence of the death of Governor Hamilton, and of 
his being about to send over a young man of the 
name of Evans to supply Hamilton's place, who 
was to be accompanied by his eldest son William. 
His motive for sending his son over to this coun- 
try, besides that of giving hmi an opportunity of 
becoming acquainted with a people and place of 
which he was likely at a future day to be the head, 
appears to have been to remove him from the 
temptations which surrounded him in his native 
country, and which he does not appear to have 
possessed such strength of mind as would enable 
him to withstand, as may be gathered from an ex- 
tract from one of his father's letters to James Lo- 
gan on the subject, where he says when speaking 
of his son's intended visit, " Immediately take 
him to Pennsbury, and there give him the true 
state of things, and weigh down his levities as 
well as temper his resentments; and inform his 
understanding; since all depends upon it, as well 



201 

for his future happiness as in measure the poor 
country's. I propose Isaac Norris, young Ship- 
pen, and the best and most noble and civilized of 
others for his conversation; and I hope Colonel 
Markham and cousin Asiiton and the Fairmans 
may come in for a share, but the first chiefly. 
Watch him, outwit him, and honestly overreach 
him for his good. Fisiiing, little journeys (as to 
see the Indians, &c.), will divert him; and intreat 
friends to bear all they can, and melt towards him, 
at least civilly if not religiously ! He will confide 
in thee. If S. Carpenter, Richard Hill, and Isaac 
Norris would gain his confidence, and tender Grif- 
fith Owen (not the least likely, for he feels and 
sees), I should rejoice." 

This visit, however, was far from proving ser- 
viceable either to the son or the country. The 
fault may probably not have been entirely his, 
though as we find that his character afterwards 
vs^as far from being such as it ought to have been, 
it is but fair to presume that his conduct here had 
been very reprehensible. His stay in the country, 
however, was not long; for having been involved 
in some fray, for which he was publicly exposed, 
he was so highly oflfended at the treatment which 
he had received that he left the country very soon 
after. Such a termination to a visit from which 
he had no doubt fondly anticipated very diiicii nt 
results, could not fail to be exceedingly painiul to 
18 



202 

the father in whichever light he viewed the affair. 
We find him, as is natural, disposed in a great 
measure to take his son's part, and consequently 
find him expressing himself with great indignation 
in a letter to James Logan upon the subject: — 

" Pray carefully penetrate to the bottom of the 
design of affronting my son. - Had I not orders to 
turn out David Lloyd from the lords justices'? 
and to prosecute and punish him, and send word 
what punishment I inflicted, and that part of it 
should be that he was never after capable of any 
employ in the country'? and does he endeavour my 
ruin for not obeying 9 but offering him to cover him- 
self in the profits under any tolerable name, and did 

I not do almost as much for and had orders 

to treat him sharply for 1 and has he forgot 

how I prevailed with to drop the prosecution 9 

and has forgot the boons I have made him 

many a day*? Well, all's well that ends well. 
But if those illegitimate Quakers think their un- 
worthy treatment no fault towards me, they may 
find that I can upon better terms take their ene- 
mies by the hand than they can mine, and unlesa 
the honest will by church discipline, or the go- 
vernment (whilst it is mine) take these Korahs to 
task and make them sensible of their baseness, 
I must, and will do so. In short, upon my know- 
ledge of this winter's assembly, I shall take my last 
measures. When the prosperity that attends the 



203 

country is talked of, and what they have done for 
me or allowed my deputies that have supported 
them against their neighbour's envy and church at- 
tempts there and here, they seem struck with admi- 
ration, and must either think me an ill man, or they 
an ungrateful people. That which I expected 
was 300 or 400 per annum for the governor, and to 
raise for other charges as they saw occasion : and 
if they will not do this willingly, they may find 
they must give a great deal more whether they 
will or not. I only by interest have prevented a 
scheme drawn up to new model the colonies. I 
was told so by a duke and a minister too, for in- 
deed if our folks had settled a reasonable revenue 
I would have returned to settle a queen's govern- 
ment and the people together, and have laid my 
bones with them, for the country is as unpleasant 
to me as ever, and if my wife's mother (who is now 
very ill) should die, I believe not only my wife 
and our young stock, but her Hither too would in- 
cline thither. He has been a treasure to Bristol, 
and giving his whole time to the service of the 
poor friends first, till they made 8 per cent of 
their money, and afterwards the city poor, by act 
of parliament, where he has been kept in beyond 
forms, he has so managed to their advantage that 
the Bristol members gave our friends, and my fa- 
ther in law in particular, an encomium much to 
their honour in the house. Well ! God Almighty 
forgive, reclaim, amend, and preserve us all. 
Amen." 



204 

Yet he adds a little farther on in the same letter : 
" I justify not my son's folly, and less their pro- 
vocation : but if his regards to your government 
does not hinder him, he has a great interest to ob- 
tain it with persons of great quality, and in the 
ministry too, and he is of a temper to remember 
them ; though I fear they did design the affront to me 
more than to him, which renders the case worse." 

The part which David Lloyd is spoken of as hav- 
ing acted towards the son is far from being the 
greatest injury that he did the father ; for it appears 
that, from motives which we shall not presume to 
penetrate, he drew up in his capacity of recorder 
of the Assembly, a complaint against the govern- 
ment, which he forwarded to England with a view 
of taking the power out of William Penn's hands, 
which complaint he signed in the name of the As- 
sembly, though it was afterwards proved that he 
was himself the only one concerned in the trans- 
action. The circumstance, however, of his being 
the only person engaged in this ungrateful and 
unworthy act was at first unknown to William 
Penx, who wrote on the occasion a letter addres- 
sed to Roger Mompesson, Esq. which we give 
here, less on account of the transaction of which it 
treats than on account of the amiable, manly, and 
discriminating mind which it displays in the wri- 
ter:— 



205 

*' Honoured Friend, 

" It is a long time since I have been oblig- 
ed with any letter from thee, and then so short that 
had not others furnished me with tfjy American 
character, I l^d been at a loss to answer the in- 
quiries of thy friends; but by my son I received 
one more copiously informing me of those affairs 
that so nearly concern both the public and my 
personal and family good, and for answer to the 
greatest part thereof, I desire thee to observe, 
First, That (with God's help) I am determined to 
stand firmly to both, and for that reason will nei- 
ther turn an enemy to the public, nor suffer any 
under the style of the public good to supplant 
mine. I do entirely refer my concerns, both as to 
the legality and prudence thereof (not only in go- 
vernment but property) to thy judicious and judi- 
cial issue, so that it may hold water with thy learn- 
ed and honourable friends of both parties. I went 
thither to lay the foundation of a free colony for 
all mankind that should go thither, more especi- 
ally those of my own profession, not that I would 
lessen the civil liberties of others because of their 
persuasion, but screen and defend our own from 
any infringement on that account. The charter I 
granted was intended to shelter them against a 
violent or arbitrary government imposed upon us ; 
but that they should turn it against me that in- 
tended their security thereby, has something very 
18* 



206 

unworthy and provoking in it, especially when I 
alone have been at all the charge as well as dan- 
ger and disappointment incoming so abruptly back 
and defending ourselves against our enemies here, 
and obtaining the Queen's graciouF approbation 
of a governor of my nominating, and commission- 
ing the thing they seemed so much to desire. But 
as a father does not use to knock his children on 
the head when they do amiss, so I had much ra- 
ther they were corrected and better instructed 
than treated to the rigour of their deservings. I 
therefore earnestly desire thee to consider of what 
methods law and reason will justify, by which they 
may be made sensible of their encroachments and 
presumption, that they may see themselves in a 
true light in their just proportions and dimensions. 
No doubt but their follies have been frequent and 
big enough in the city to^vacate their charter, but 
that would be the last thing, if any thing would 
do. I would hope that in the abuse of power, pu- 
nishing of the immoderate offenders should in- 
struct others to use it well. But doubtless from the 
choice of David Lloyd, both for speaker and re- 
corder, after the affront he gave in open court to 
the authority of the crown in the late reign, which 
he owned but never repented of, and for which the 
lords justices of England commanded me to have 
him tried and punished, and to send them word 
what punishment I inflicted; as also the choice of 



207 



for that confessed himself 



to defraud the king of his customs (for which he 
is punishable at this day); there is an excess of 
vanity that is apt to creep in upon the people in 
power in America, who having got out of the crowd 
in which they were lost here, upon any little emi- 
nency there, think nothing taller than themselves 
but the trees, and as if there was no after superior 
judgment to which they should be accountable ; 
so that I have sometimes thought that if there was 
a law to oblige the people in power in their re- 
spective colonies to take turns in coming over to 
England, that they might lose themselves again 
amongst the crowds of so much more considerable 
people at the Custom House, Exchange, and West- 
minster Hall, they would exceedingly amend in 
their conduct at their return, and be much more 
discreet and tractable and fit for government. In 
the mean time, pray help to prevent them from 
destroying themselves. Accept of my commis- 
sion of chief justice of Pennsylvania and the ter- 
ritories. Take them all to task for their con- 
tempts, presumption, and riots. Let them know 
and feel the just order and economy of govern- 
ment, and that they are not to command, but to 
be commanded according to the law and constitu- 
tion of the English government ; and till those un- 
worthy people, that hindered an establishment 
upon thee as their chief justice, are amended or 
laid aside, so as thou art considered by law to thy 



208 

satisfaction, I fully allow thee twenty pounds each 
session, which I take to be at spring and fall; and 
at any extraordinary session thou mayst be called 
from New York unto, upon mine or weighty causes, 
having also thy viaticum discharged, let me en- 
treat thee as an act of friendship, and as a just and 
honourable man. More particulars expect from 
James, for I perceive time is not to be lost. 

" Now I must condole thy great loss in thy wife 
and thy brother, the particulars of which must re- 
fer thee to her brother and our common friend C. 
Lawton. Thy letters inclosed to me I delivered, 
and was well enough pleased to see that one of 

them was directed to Lord S . I write no 

news, only I find that moderation on this side of 
the water is a very recommending qualification — 
nothing high church nor violent whig, neither 
seeming to be the inclination and choice of the 
present ministry. I wish our people on your side 
had no worse dispositions. 

** I cannot conclude this letter till I render thee 
(as I now do) my hearty acknowledgments for all 
the good advices thou hast given for the public 
and my private good; especially thy sentiments to 
the governor upon three preposterous bills, fool- 
ishly as well as insolently presented him by David 
Lloyd at the last Assembly. Let him part with 
nothing that is mine, for had he passed them they 



209 

would never have been confirmed here, but he 
might have spoiled himself. What a bargain 
should T have made for my government with the 
crown after such a bill had taken from me the 
very power I should dispose of! I will say no 
more at this time but that I am with just regards, 
" Thy very affectionate 

and faithful friend, 

" William Penn. 

''Hyde Park, 11th of 
12th mo. 1704-5." 

After having mentioned David Lloyd, only to 
speak of his unworthy conduct, we cannot deny 
ourselves the pleasing task of recording the change 
which afterwards took place in his sentiments to- 
wards the proprietor, especially as we can give it 
in the beautiful language in which it is expressed 
in a note by the same pen to which we have be- 
fore been obliged, and which speaks of him thus : 
" Some years after this we find him in a kind and 
friendly disposition of mind, assisting James Lo- 
gan in ascertaining the proprietary title to the 
Lower Countries, and it is soothing to observe the 
characters of men, who liave, like him, hitherto 
been swayed by prejudice or passion, that when 
the evening of life advances, the storms which 
have agitated them subside, and the soul, like the 
sun of the natural world, emerging from the clouds 



210 

which have obscured it, illuminates the horizon 
with its parting beam, and the day closes in sere- 
nity and peace." 

In the year 1707 William Penn found himself 
involved in still greater pecuniary embarrassments 
than any that he had yet experienced, in conse- 
quence of the dishonesty of a steward to whom he 
had entrusted his concerns with too unlimited a 
confidence. On this person's death his affairs 
were placed in the hands of executors, who made 
such a demand upon William Penn's property as 
he was resolved to resist, and consequently became 
involved in a law suit. On account, however, of 
some papers that he had imprudently signed, in 
compliance with the wishes of his steward, with- 
out having properly inquired into their nature, 
this suit was given against him. The general sen- 
timent was that he was much aggrieved : yet a sub- 
ject on which there could be two opinions could 
not fail to be exceedingly painful to his upright 
and honourable mind; particularly as it ended in 
his being obliged to live within the limits of the 
Fleet Prison, till an arrangement could be made 
of his affairs. From these circumstances he was 
obliged to mortgage his province of Pennsylvania 
for the sum of £6,000, which money was princi- 
pally advanced by his own religious society; a 
certain proof we deem it, that his difficulties were 
the result of undeserved misfortunes. 



211 

We cannot be at all surprised to find that his 
health suffered materially from such an accumula- 
tion of troubles. Deceived by those in whom he 
had confided; embarrassed in his affairs, and dis- 
appointed in the failure of a Chancery suit, by 
which, though he knew himself to be right, his re- 
putation was greatly endangered; obliged to mort- 
gage his province, and, in addition, exposed to 
many mortifications on account of a renewal of 
disturbances in that province, he could scarcely 
fail, at the advanced age of sixty-seven, to totter 
under his burden. Religion, indeed, might ena- 
ble him to endure these afflictions with humble 
and pious resignation ; but the body partakes not 
of the heavenly flame which animates the mental 
structure, so that when severely oppressed, it 
shews its destructible nature by sinking under its 
load. 

But however his health may have declined, his 
mind still resisted the pressure of the burdens 
whch seemed to accumulate upon it. Isaac Nor- 
ris, who was at that time in London, in speaking 
of him says, "After all I think the Fable of the 
Palm good in him. ' The more he is pressed the 
more he rises.' He seems of a spirit fit to bear, 
and rub through difficulties, and as thou observes 
his foundation remains." Indeed such will ever 
be the case with those whose actions are the result 
of genuine benevolence, and whose minds are sup- 



212 

ported by that steadfast sense of religion which, 
so far from forsaking us in time of need, only 
gains increased strength from the disappointments 
and mortifications to which all worldly schemes 
are liable. His object in the settlement of this 
state had been to prepare a home for the persecu- 
ted Christian, where he might worship his Maker 
in the way that his conscience directed; and he 
well knew that the God whom he sought thus to 
serve would not leave him unrewarded, even 
though pains and trials should be his only return 
from his fellow men. And thus we find him breath- 
ing the words of piety, love and peace, in a para- 
graph of a letter to James Logan written whilst 
imprisoned and persecuted and apparently forsak- 
en by all men: — "Give honest and wise Samuel 
Carpenter, Caleb Pusey, S. Masters, Griffith Owen, 
and I hope Thomas Story too, my dear love, not 
forgetting Captain Hill and his sweet wife; in- 
deed all that love the truth in its simplicity my 
love is for and forgiveness for the rest. — My God 
has not yet forsaken, nor yet forgotten me in all 
respects. Blessed be his name!" 

From this time to the year 1712 we find but few 
incidents of importance connected with this nar- 
rative. He seems to have preserved his usual ac- 
tivity in all his various avocations till that time 
when his usefulness was stopped by a fit of apo- 
plexy, which stamped its ravaging effects on his 



213 

memory and understanding. His decline was 
easy and gradual, and though he was for four years 
rendered incapable of business, he retained, during 
nearly the whole of that period, sufficient conscious- 
ness to enjoy the society of his friends, and to unite 
with them in the exercises of religion. During this 
period of helplessness, which must have been par- 
ticularly painful to one who had been accustomed 
to spend a life of such unremitting activity, he 
had a kind and faithful nurse, steward, and ama- 
nuensis in his amiable and affectionate wife. We 
have an admirable letter before us from that ex- 
cellent woman to James Logan, dated in 1716, 
which we are persuaded will be read with plea- 
sure by all who have a gratification in seeing the 
feminine virtues ennobled by vigorous intellect 
and active usefulness : — 

" Ruscomb, the 2d of 2d mo. 1716. 

"This is to accompany a little present to 
thy wife, viz. a small case of bottles, in which 
there is two of convulsion water, one strong, the 
other small enough for children without mixing. 
She should have had it sooner, but that London, 
Bristol, nor Ruscomb could afford one half pint 
ready made, nor would the season allow of making 
it till now, and therefore I have now made a quan- 
tity for thy wife to accommodate herself and 
friends as occasion requires : it is an extraordinary 
19 



214 

medicine and what I may not make again for many 
years. I hope it will come in time enough to be 
of service to your dear little girl, whom I heartily 
wish you comfort in, and shall be glad to hear her 
life and health is continued to you, and yours to 
her. 

"I design this with the case to the care of Cle- 
ment Plumstead, from whom I had thy kind pre- 
sent of skins, which Peggy with myself very kindly 
accepts from thee, and it was delightful also to 
my husband, as is always any thing from that 
country to which he holds his love and good wishes 
through all his weakness, and which, through mer- 
cy, does not much increase on him, though now 
and then a little fit of disorder in his blood makes 
me fear worse is coming. But he has hitherto been 
preserved in a sweet and comfortable frame of spi- 
rit, and very comfortable in himself, and I enjoy 
him as a great mercy to me and mine, but the 
want of his direction in his public and family af- 
fairs, you there, as well as myself here, are but 
too sensible of. I have now been at London ad- 
vising with my friends what may be done for your 
relief and the help of that country which is now 
so lamentably managed. All generally conclude 
no way like that of resigning the government 
wholly to the crown, with the provisos my hus- 
band has made ; and which Thomas Story says are 
as much as could be expected, and at least as 



215 

much as can be attained, for he struggled hard for 
them, and I do not expect any that come after 
him will be able to do more or better than he did. 
Therefore we have all reason to wish it were so 
confirmed, but as that cannot be done this ses- 
sion, and your case requiring speedy thought, we 
have under our consideration three that ofter as go- 
vernors in case of a change, and neither of the three 
is James Coutty, nor can I hear his name has been 
so much as mentioned for the place — to be sure he 
will not be chosen by us, but perhaps one of the 
three may, who has a very good character for a judi- 
cious, considerate, and well natured man — a man 
said to be above the world and the little tricks of 
it. Indeed if he answers but the character I have 
of him, and from a considerable man too, I think 
you will be happy under his administration, and 
hope you will make him easy if he comes. But 
how to get him commissionated and approved, is 
a task, and I must say the people of Pennsylvania 
have been wanting to themselves in not appointing 
an agent or two to discourse with me, and then 
correspond with you and solicit your affairs here. 
Such a person or persons, considering the circum- 
stances of things, would certainly have been of 
great use to you and ease to me, who am but a 
woman, and by the indisposition of my husband 
have the whole load of a large family's affairs — 
indeed I may say of a double family, for so in rea- 
lity it is, because the person thou mentioned in 



216 

one of thine as reformed is, notwithstanding all 
their pretences, but exactly ditto. I wish I could 
say otherwise, I might then have, in many respects, 
help and ease from some of the burdens which I 
now labour under. But he has now put himself 
out of the way of every thing, except the enjoy- 
ment of that which has brought him to where 
he is. My daughter Penn is here, and gives her 
love to thee, as also does my dear husband. We 
are sorry Rebecca Blackfan gives no better en- 
couragement from Pennsbury, she mightily com- 
plains for want of money. I desire thou wilt see 
that Peter Evans does not wrong her, for he has 
firmly bound himself to Edward Blackfan, his exe- 
cutor, &.C. in a hundred pound bond, to pay her 
£20 per annum, a copy of which, if I can get 
time, I purpose to send thee by Clement Plum- 
stead, as also another letter in answer to some of 
thine, but 'tis hard for me to get time from my 
husband to write, and to do it before him does but 
make him thoughtful when otherwise he would be 
very easy and comfortable, as he generally is when 
business is not in his view. 

" I told thee in my last I had left John at Bris- 
tol with my cousin Webb, where he goes on well, 
if he can but have his health. My other four 
children are as yet with me, and through mercy 
well, as is the rest of the family. But you will 
doubtless by these ships hear of the death of poor 



217 

Thomas Lloyd, who has left a melancholy widow 
and six fine children, some of whom I fancy will 
go by this opportunity to their nearest relations 
with you. I hope Sybella Masters will also return 
to hers : all her friends, I believe, in these parts 
wish it, and I trust she is prevailed on to attempt 
it for the good of herself and family. I shall say 
no more now, but designing another letter, I close 
this with true kind love to thee and wife, from 
" Thy real friend, 

"H. Penn.'' 

We see, by what is said by this affectionate wife 
of the manner in which her husband's feelings 
were affected at the sight of business in which he 
was unable to assist, that his mind still retained a 
portion of its native activity. This however gradu- 
ally forsook him, and from that time to the 30th of 
July 1718 his existence appears to have been little 
more than a blank, and nothing seems to have been 
wanting, but the extinction of the last spark which 
continued till that day to flicker in his feeble frame, 
to blot him out from the number of the living. 

After tracing the rise and gradual progress of any 
thing so beautiful as the mind of this great man, a re- 
gret bordering on melancholy steals over us on arri- 
ving at its close. We are unwilling to admit the ideay 
that one so good, so excellent, so calculated to con- 
duce to the happiness of others, was withdrawn from 
19* 



218 

a world that so much required the influence of such 
an example ; and that regret would amount even to 
agony, were it not for the reflection that the virtue 
which we have been contemplating, elevated and 
noble as it appears to us, was but the dawn of a 
higher excellence which was removed only to be 
perfected in higher and happier spheres. As we 
naturally feel desirous of being further acquainted 
With the person and manners of those whose cha- 
racters we admire, we read with interest the de- 
scription which is given of William Penn. We 
are told that in his person he was tall and athletic, 
and that in his youth he was exceedingly fond of 
manly sports. In more advanced age, though in- 
clined to corpulency, he was uncommonly active, 
and is said to have been a fine looking, portly man. 
That his address and general deportment were 
graceful and elegant, may be gathered from what 
is said by one of his friends, when speaking of his 
son on his first arrival in this country, who thus 
expresses himself: " Our young landlord, to say 
true in my judgment, discovers himself his father's 
eldest son: his person, his sweetness of temper, 
and elegance of speech, are no small demonstra- 
tions thereof" This however might easily have 
been presumed, independent of such testimony, 
from a recollection of what his education had 
been. Indeed, in the consideration of William 
Penn's character, this circumstance ought ever to 
be kept in view, as giving it additional lustre, by 



219 

proving that native energy of mind which had 
power to rise even above the all-powerful influ- 
ence of example and education. This great and 
governing principle was a love of truth and jus- 
tice. For this he gave up not only the allure- 
ments of a court and the fascinating temptations 
of riches and power, but what was to him still 
more valuable, the protection and favour of an 
affectionate parent : for this he endured impri- 
sonment, persecution and scorn; for this he forsook 
his country; and for this he exposed himself to all 
the trials and mortifications which must ever at- 
tend the amalgamation of different dispositions 
and interests in forming a home to which truth 
might resort with confidence, and where justice 
might hold her balance, to be swayed only by the 
laws of equity. 

Had power or self-aggrandizement been his 
object, he might doubtless have acquired it in a 
much higher degree in his native country, where 
the government was corrupted, and the smiles of 
its monarch were ready for his acceptance. But 
that sense of religion, which took possession of 
his mind at so early an age, taught him to judge 
of these things by their real value, not by their 
meretricious glare; and led him to aim through 
life at a nobility beyond the^ power of kings to 
bestow. From the persecutions which he himself 
experienced he learned a lesson of mercy to 



220 

others, and was ready to hail as friends the wise and 
good, to whatever denomination they might belong. 
*' Salute me, (says he in a letter to James Logan) 
not only to my declared friends, but to the mode- 
rate and ingenuous whatever name they bear." 
In another place he says, in speaking of a per- 
son by whom he was sending letters to this coun- 
try : " He is a great enemy to Friends, a reviler. 
Let kindness teach him his mistakes." And in 
another we find the following passage : " I went 
thither to lay the foundation of a free colony for 
all mankind that should go thither; more especi- 
ally those of my own profession. Not that I 
would lessen the civil liberties of others because 
of their persuasion, but screen and defend our 
own from any infringement on that account." 
This general kindness and good will had no effect 
however in leading him to palliate vice or coun- 
tenance injustice ; for we find him at all times 
most unqualified in his disapprobation of every 
species of immorality. 

His ideas on government we have spoken of 
more than once, and have shewn by his own 
words the philosophical view which he took of the 
subject. We have an example, moreover, of the 
manner in which he was in the habit of summing 
up a number of important principles in a few con- 
cise sentences, in the following passage from one 
of his letters to James Logan :— " Give no occa- 



221 

sion of discontent to the inhabitants, nor yet 
court any selfish spirits at my cost and my suffer- 
ing family's. Distinguish tempers and pleas, and 
let realities, not mere pretences, engage thee. 
Repress real grievances ; suppress vice and fac- 
tion ; encourage the industrious and sober ; and 
be an example as well as a commander, and thy 
authority will have the greater weight and accep- 
tance w^ith the people." 

On his piety it is equally unnecessary here to 
enlarge : for he proved by every word and action, 
that religion was with him not a mere profession, 
or a favourite hypothesis that he wished to sup- 
port, but a governing principle, which accompa- 
nied him through all the scenes and transactions 
of life, comforted him in sickness, and closed his 
eyes in death. 

When we reflect upon how much he accom- 
plished, the many volumes which he wrote, his 
zeal as a minister of religion, his activity as a go- 
vernor, and the active part that he took in all 
public questions, we are astonished to think that 
the life of one man, even though protracted as his 
was to the age of seventy-four, could have allow- 
ed time to accomplish so much. But the consi- 
deration affords us a striking proof of the import- 
ance of a methodical arrangement of time, of 
which he was always particularly sensible. These 



222 

are the bold outlines of the picture : and when to 
them is added all the finer shading which is to be 
derived from a fulfilment of the social and rela- 
tive duties of an affectionate husband, a tender 
parent, and a faithful friend, accompanied by a 
pleasing cheerfulness of manner and great per- 
sonal neatness, who will hesitate to hold him up as a 
pattern to the rising generation 1- Or what youthful 
mind, after becoming acquainted with his sterling 
worth, rigid principle, liberal sentiments, and kind 
affections, can fail to experience the glow of no- 
ble emulation, or to turn from the subject with a 
determination to go and do likewise '^ And let the 
youthful reader remember that every virtuous as- 
piration, every noble resolve, will tend to the ob- 
ject so dear to every American heart, the perma- 
nent independence of his native couutry: since, 
though he never may be called upon to act as a 
statesman or legislator, there is still a sphere, 
however small, surrounding every individual, in 
which the influence of example will promote the 
cause of virtue; and virtue alone will secure the 
permanent well-being of any country. Fortune 
may favour, natural advantages may assist, and 
laws may restrain ; but a virtuous and enlightened 
people can alone present a bulwark that no ene- 
my can destroy. 



223 



By a will made in 1712, a few months previous 
to the first fit of apoplexy, for he had three, he 
left his estates in England and Ireland to his son 
William and his daughter Letitia, the children of 
his first wife. The government of his province of 
Pennsylvania and the territories, and the powers 
belonging to them, he devised to his particular 
friends, Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford and Earl 
Mortimer; and William, Earl Powlett, upon trust, 
to be disposed of to Queen Anne, or to any other 
person, to the best advantage — and to be applied 
in such manner as he should afterwards direct. 
" He then devised to his wife Hannah Penn, toge- 
ther with eleven others, and to their heirs, all his 
lands, rents, and other profits in America, upon 
trust, to dispose of so much thereof as should be 
suflicient to discharge all his debts, and, after pay- 
ment of them, to convey to his daughter Letitia, 
and to each of three children of his son William, 
(namely, Guilielma Maria, Springett, and Wil- 
liam,) ten thousand acres of land, (the forty thou- 
sand to be set out in such places as his trustees 
should think fit,) and then to convey all the rest 
of his landed property there, subject to the pay- 
ment of three hundred pounds a year to his wife 
for her natural life, to and amongst his children 
by her, (John, Thomas, Margaret, Richard, and 



224 

Dennis, all minors,) in such proportions and for 
such estates as his wife should think fit. All his 
personal estate in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, 
and arrears of rent due there, he devised to his 
wife, whom he made his sole executrix, for the 
equal benefit of his and her children." 

Subsequently to making the foregoing will, 
William Penn had agreed to part with his pro- 
vince to government, for £12,000. But the 
crown lawyers having given a joint opinion, 
which was adopted by government, that the agree- 
ment for sale in 1712 was made void by his inabi- 
lity to execute the surrender in a proper manner 
— not only the province, but the government of 
it, descended to his sons John, Thomas, and 
Richard. 



FINIS. 



^^3'^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




0014311 1775 



